Undercurrents 11 May-june 1975

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• 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 spellchecked 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technical and scientific information herein [though believed to be accurate at the time of publication] may now be out of date.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 133 pages [the print versions were 48 - 56 pp.]: readers wishing to print it out to read are recommended to get the text from the .doc or text versions and to reformat it. The many pictures that embellished the print version are sadly not included here. There are no restrictions on the use of this material but please credit individual authors where credit is due: they are mostly still with us. Page numbers below are for this pdf version. The beginning of each section or article is indicated thus:

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4 EDDIES. The usual brew of New, Scandal, Eddie Currents, and Gossip. 24 LETTERS. Your chance to get your own back on us. 39 HIVING OFF MR CUBE. Sylvia Lee tells about the secret life of bee, and explains how bee keeping can be a fascinating way of providing all the sweetness you need. 52 HOW THE LAND TURNED SOUR. Dave Elliott looks at the Government sponsored "back to the land" movements of the depressed 305, and identifies in their failure some mistakes which modern "back to the landers" must avoid.

62 MYSTERIOUS ENERGIES: an interview with Paul Screeton, editor of The Ley Hunter, author of Quicksilver Heritage, and researcher into the hidden secrets of ancient Britain. 72 HOW STRAIGHT IS THE OLD STRAIGHT TRACK? Chris Hutton-Squire has been running his slide rule over the numbers. 75 AS BELOW. SO ABOVE. Colin Taylor explains how block, made of compressed subsoil can be used to make cheap, strong, owner built houses.. 81 WIND POWER SPECIAL FEATURE. Theory and practice of small scale wind power generation; complete designs for a low cost wind charger built from scrap parts; product review of the only small commercially produced wind charger available in the UK by Ian Hogan, Brian Ford and Godfrey Boyle. 91 NEW CURE FOR METHANE INDIGESTION? Methane gas production from waste in Britain has so far been disappointingly unsuccessful. Godfrey Boyle looks at a new, small to medium sized digester design which may have solved many of the problems.

95 THE HOUSE THAT JAAP BUILT. Peter Harper give, the lowdown on an ingenious "autonomous bedsitter" built in Holland by Jaap t'Hoft of the Dutch Small Earth Project. 104 MIND EXPANSION: RIPOFF OR REVELATION? Chris Hutton Squire and Richard Elen investigate some of the mind expanding techniques currently on offer in London. 117 GETTING YOUR GOAT. Before you unhook yourself from Unigate Dairies, it's wise to know that goat keeping isn't just all free milk and cheese, says Tom Kewell. Do it, but without illusions. 125 TOWARDS AN ALTERNATIVE CULTURE. Part II of Woody's thoughtful essay on how we might set about building a culture in which we live for each other rather than against each other. 141 REVIEWS. The Dispossessed by Ursula Ie Guin; The Journal of the New Alchemists; Leaving the 20th Century; The Age of Plenty; A Christian View. by E. F. Schumacher; Medical Nemesis by Ivan IlIich; The Whole Earth Epilog; and Public Works by Walter Szykitka. 160 A LAST MINUTE WORD .... on the Referendum by Gordon Tether UC11: page 3

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pages 01-06 Eddies NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE COME TRUE THE REVERBERATIONS of the Karen Silkwood affair, the mysterious death of a young woman who worked at the Kerr.McGee plutonium reprocessing factory in Oklahoma City, echo on. The US Energy Research & Development Association, (ERDA), has just issued a report which found no evidence that KerrMcGee were guilty of manufacturing defective reactor fuel rods for a reactor in Richland, Washington. Silkwood met her death on 13th November last year when her Honda car left the road while she was on a journey to see a union official and a New York Times reporter armed with a manilla folder detailing alleged defects in the rods and numerous safety violations in the Kerr McGee plant. In a long article in Rolling Stone (March 27) Howard Kohn assembles an impressive body of evidence to suggest that her death was no accident and was intimately connected with the allegations she had made about the reprocessing plant. Silkwood had agreed to 'meet Steve Wodka, an official of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW) and Dave Burnham, the Times reporter) at about 8 pm that evening at the Holiday Inn Northwest in Oklahoma City. She never turned up. Instead, her car was found at the bottom of a culvert on the road to Oklahoma City and she was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital, the victim of multiple compound fractures. The two main elements in the mystery are: the disappearance of the manilla folder, full of evidence, which several witnesses, including the police, testified was in the car before and after the accident; and the reason for the crash itself. The initial explanation given for the crash by the State Highway Police was that Silkwood, exhausted by a 600 mile drive from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City had fallen asleep at the wheel. This was quickly changed when it was realised that she had returned from l.A. the previous night and had had a UC11: page 4

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full night's sleep. The second, somewhat more convincing,version was that she had swallowed sedatives and had dropped off to sleep while driving. A post mortem established that her blood did contain methalqualone in quantities possibly large enough to cause drowsiness. But against this has to be set the evidence that she habitually took such sedatives during the day without going to sleep, and she was hardly likely to doze off while driving to a very crucial meeting. Three days after her death, an autocrash expert arrived in Oklahoma from the Accident Reconstruction Laboratory in Dallas. He was A.O. Pipkin, an expoliceman with experience of over 2,000 crashes and 300 court cases behind him. Examining the car Pipkin noticed two curious dents, one in the rear bumper, the other in the wing. They were fresh and appeared to have been made by a car bumper. At the crash scene, Pipkin also noticed that the car had traversed the road and hit the culvert on the left side of the highway, whereas he would have expected the car to have drifted off to the right if Silkwood had fallen asleep at the wheel. Tyre marks in the mud at the side of the road indicated that her car was out of control before it left the road. Pipkin concluded that Silkwood's car had been hit from the rear by another vehicle. The disappearance of the manila folder containing the evidence is also still unexplained. A sworn affidavit from a fellow worker testified that Silkwood was carry.ing it when she set out to meet Wodka and Burnham. The State Trooper who attended the accident reported finding dozens of loose sheets blowing about the scene, which he collected and put back in the car. According to the Highway Patrol's information officer the papers were in the car when it was hauled off to a local garage. Five hours after the crash, a group of AEC and KerrMcGee representatives arrived and inspected the car, claiming to be looking for plutonium contamination. By the time Wodka and Burnham arrived, the following afternoon, the papers had disappeared. Two weeks earlier, it appears, Silkwood had been involved in another curious and frightening incident when she was found to be contaminated with plutonium and that contamination was traced to food inside her refrigerator. Despite extensive enquiries, the source of the contamination and how it came to affect the food has UC11: page 5

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never been traced. Wodka is of the opinion that it was put there deliberately. The contamination was merely one of a series of disturbing incidents at the Oklahoma plant. The USAEC, in a report on the KerrMcGee plant, found 20 out of 39 grievances it investigated to be true or partly true. Plutonium had been left in a desk drawer, employees had been forced to work in areas not tested for contamination or where leaks remained, the company had failed to notify the AEC of a serious leak which forced it to close in May 1974, respirators had not been checked regularly and few workers had been properly trained. At one point, when the regular workers were on strike, the company imported scabs with virtually no training at all to work the plutonium reprocessing line. The AEC, curiously, decided that the violations merited no censure. The Browns Ferry incident, which, in the words of Nuclear Engineering International, the ever supine house organ of the nuclear fraternity ‘may come to haunt the industry for the next ten years', occurred at 12.30 on the afternoon of March 22. Two electricians at the plant were working in a cable spreading room underneath the. reactor looking for leaks at the point where the control cables pass through into the secondary containment area. One was holding a candle close to the penetration to see if any airflow would make it flicker, and as he did so the caulking material, which sealed the gaps between the cables and which was made from highly inflammable polyurethane, caught fire. The fire quickly spread to the control cables and was detected by the operator in the control room who promptly flooded the area with carbon dioxide. But such is the speed with which polyurethane burns that although the fire beneath the control room was extinguished, the flames had been sucked into the reactor building. Ten minutes later the operator began to get erratic readings on the control panel, he pushed the manual 'scram' buttons, and shut down reactor unit one. A few minutes later, however, he registered a 'half scram' on unit two. Now the real significance of this incident quickly recognised by both opponents and fans of nuclear power lies UC11: page 6

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in the fact that the fire not only caused the reactors to be shut down but that it affected the control cables to both the safety systems and the Emergency Core Cooling Systems 1 DR. WHO'S SCOTS CITADEL BURGLED! FOUR EDINBURGH youths have been blackmailed into keeping secret the underground shelter they discovered near their homes last spring. After agreeing to silence, the recent prosecution for theft against them in the Edinburgh court just faded away. • • • West of Edinburgh, amongst the 'better' residential districts of Cramond and Corstorphine, is the landmark of Corstorphine Hill. Flanked on the South by Edinburgh Zoo, the woods on the North give way to Barnton Quarry, just off the main Forth Bridge Road. Fifty yards from the footpath crossing the hill, a public park, a few desolate looking brick buildings are fenced off on a concrete compound. Here, in the shadow of the quarry faces, an old man tends a few rose beds scattered around the compound, and mutters very little about what lies beneath his feet A diesel generator is silent, as is the complex of masts and radio aerials on the cliff edge above. On the far side, curious ventilators have sprouted through the granite scree, their shutters now adorned with Edinburgh gangland graffiti. Barnton Quarry is known to be the headquarters of Scotland's emergency government, exposed by the Committee of 100 after the Spies for Peace disclosures in 1963. It had been rebuilt some ten years earlier for the RAF. Barnton Boogies Four larking local lads broke into those derelict buildings in April 1974 not expecting to find much of worth among what appeared to be old quarry outbuildings. They had only taken a few steps inside before they realised that these sheds were much more. Corridors led off in several directions and farther below was a vast complex of offices, laboratories and rooms full of electronic equipment They had, according to friends, found it "impossible to describe the size". Reporters at the subsequent court case heard how they then left the place quite quickly, to return some hours later with a UC11: page 7

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car, cameras and other equipment They were quickly able to explore much of the bunker below the quarry. It was in perfect condition maps on the walls and water and electricity connected. But the tables and desks were covered in dust, the court heard. One of them took six reels of photographs as they explored the subterranean caverns. Another because he was interested in electronics" he explained gathered quantities of documents, maps and diagrams with little heed for any 'secret' markings they bore. They also removed items of radio equipment which they found lying about Paralysis When the Spies for Peace blew the gaff on the Government's secret chain of regional headquarters in 1963, they obtained their information in a similar way. They had made a very wellconcealed raid on RSG 6 at the Berkshire village of Warren Row. And other raids on civil defence headquarters followed. But these four Edinburgers didn't have the faintest idea of what to do with what they had found. They had, it seemed from the case, been 'paralysed' after the breakin. They dumped the radio equipment which was later recovered by the police. Time dragged on until, inevitably, their homes were raided four months later. During the raid on one of the youths' homes, in an Edinburgh suburb near Corstorphine Hill, the police dramatically pushed open the door of an old garden shed. Amongst the rakes and spades inside they found the still undeveloped film and all the missing maps, diagrams and documents. The four, aged 17 to 20, wore brought to court in the second week in August, charged with breaking into what the police coyly described as "Underground government offices in a quarry". Although the case was not held in camera, much of the evidence was withheld or avoided. The youths pleaded guilty to .. .. theft of radio equipment, included VHF and HF transceivers and specialised broadcasting equipment worth over £2,000. But, curiously, nothing happened to them. Instead, their case was adjourned for another six months, after UC11: page 8

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which they appeared in court again. In the intervening period, they had been 'persuaded' to sign an agreement not to reveal what they had seen or done. In the end, the four were "'" discharged without a fuss " provided they help keep the dungeon a state secret. Clearly, the Government wishes to keep the knowledge of the continued existence and threat of its subterranean headquarters hidden from those who 'elect' them. But by now, many of Edinburgh's population are aware that 'something' lies in Corstorphine Hill although so long as they have no conception of its size the 'sec ref is safe enough. In 1963 the local Committee of 100 suggested that the base accommodated 500 people. It was certainly large enough to blow the unsuspecting minds of four naive young locals. More mindblowing still is a small fenced enclosure behind the bear enclosure of Edinburgh Zoo, half a mile south on Corstorphine Hill. In the halfacre enclosure I stands a solitary telephone box entirely painted dark green. A prim path leads to its opaque entrance. This extraordinary spare prop from the Doctor Who set is, reportedly, an emergency exit for the embunkered bureaucrat ... You don't believe it? Go and look for yourself. I (ECCS), rendering them (in the words of that immortal refugee from Disneyland, Ron Ziegler) inoperative". All five ECCS were put out of action in unit one 'at a stroke'. There was no melt down or release of radioactivity because the reactor, luckily, had been operating normally, but in the event of any malfunction of the control systems the ECCS could not have worked and the r .. suit could have been very nasty indeed. (Brown's Ferry, one of the world's largest nuclear power stations, has a fission product inventory equivalent to the fall out from several thousand Hiroshima type bombs.) The simultaneous failure of five independent safety systems has come as a severe shock to those nuclear hawks who were basking in the afterglow of the Rasmussen Report UC11: page 9

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This, as assiduous readers of Undercurrents 9 will know, pooh poohed the idea of nuclear armageddon and equated the likelihood of dying in a nuclear accident with that of being hit by a falling meteorite. But Professor Rasmussen's analysis depended very largely on the independent nature of the various safety systems in the unlikely event of one failing there would always be another to back it UP. The learned professor's reaction to refutation so swift and sudden is as yet unknown. However, rumours (no doubt untrue and maliciously intended) are now in circulation to the effect that the gentle savant has been driven to the point of a nervous breakdown by a hail of illtempered abuse and uninformed comment from assorted rowdies, hairies and persons of a paranoic ecological frame of mind. WINDMILLS: IS SMALL SAFER? WINDPOWER seems to have become something of a cause celebre. The recent one day workshop at the Architectural Association, organised by _ Derek Taylor, attracted a room full of afficionado’s who duly payed homage to the experience of the practitioners. We marvelled at the 100 KW wind electric machine erected in 1959 on the Isle of Man, lovingly passed around the remains of a Lucas Freelite aerofoil, chewed over the pros and cons of various blade designs, enthused over machines made from car differentials and alternators, pondered the significance and potential of the canvas sailed machines used in the Kit Pedler Middle East (technological diffusion in reverse?) and toasted (in light ale) Kit Pedler’s home made fibre glass bladed machine which he had mounted conveniently near the bar on the roof of the A.A. There was much talk of Reynolds Numbers, impressive graphs and boundless enthusiasm. But although the answer to our power problems may be literally “blowing in the wind”, we were reminded that (again to borrow Dylans phrase) we shouldn’t get too carried away with “big ideas ... and distorted facts!” UC11: page 10

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For example, the wind can be dangerous. Professor Elliot from the University of Aston was at pains to point out that it was foolish to throw together home made machines without thinking about safety. When running free of electrical load. an aerofoil would soak up energy and accelerate rapidly even at fairly low airspeed,. And at high airspeeds (he said he always designed his machines for the occasional 130 mph blast) The tips might even go supersonic. You couldn’t pull the windmill out of the wind under these conditions. Even a mechanical braking system (like the one using car rear axle brakeshoes on Dave Andrews’ machine) could fail. The main shaft might break, releasing a spinning disc which, frizbee like, could easily decapitate all and sundry. Prof. Elliot’s solution was to fit ,,’ failsafe spoiler system flaps which opened out from the tip at certain loadings, tripped by centripetal force. Otherwise, make sure your machine is at a safe distance from habitation or arrange that you can collapse the tower. “ But surely, said Kit Pedler, this is only a problem with big windmills. It’s all part of the diseconomies of scale. Small is not only beautiful but also safe. Dr. Calvert (from Liverpool University) pointed out that if you accepted the inherently lower efficiency, the safest machines were those using sails) since excess wind simply spills out Even so, Windpower may not be all plain sailing ... It may be prohibitively expensive for the man in the street and it may be peddled by unscrupulous entrepreneurs intent only on profit The A.A. workshop certainIy contributed to the urgent task of exploding some of the more fanciful technical, economic and social myths that have grown up around windmills, and alerting us to some of the dangers. It seems clear that before windpower or any other alternative energy technology can deliver power to the people’ we will need to know a lot more about the technology the environment and ourselves. As Francis Bacon said ‘Nature to be controlled must be obeyed.’ OILY GRAVE FOR AI? THERE’S A LOT,of talk about how long this North Sea oil stuff’s likely to UC11: page 11

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last, much 01 it none too well informed. Almost all views of the world’s future involve some use of oil, and most straight world futures involve a growth in oil use at least until the 1990s Now there’s no real doubt that the oil needed for this growth can be extracted; at present there is about 20 years’ supply actually tested at present rates, and such prospects as offshore Greenland, the Bering Sea, offshore Antarctica and the Arctic Ocean can provide the rest, especially with expertise gained in bad conditions in places like the North Sea and onshore Alaska. Additionally, there’s still a lot to be found inshore and in current producing areas. And that’s without going into deep water an estimate in the Oil and Gas Journal recently guessed that half the world’s recoverable reserves of oil are in oceans of over 10,000 ft depth, totally beyond current technology: So what the Companies are planning on is a quick increase in ex traction, and hence profits, to allow these very difficult prospect’ to be afforded. Making these profits is a tricky job.in difficult areas like the North Sea. In essence, since money has to be borrowed to finance gelling fields on stream, the oil has to get from discovery to the gas station as fast as possible so that the cash flow becomes positive as soon as possible. The only way the Companies can stay in business is to sell the stuff as quickly as they can, payoff the interest, and fuck rational use of resources. (This is why delaying action by conservationists can be so devastating). So there’s going to be a lot of oil around for the rest of the decade at least, especially if ‘Independence 1980’ starts to reduce the States’ dependence on imported oil And to sell it, prices will have to be pared as low as possible they have already started to fall. 50 builders of AT hardware can look forward to a hard few years as their products’ limited economic viability is reduced even further. And suggestions for stretching the North Sea supply out into the next century, by only using it for primary needs are as unlikely as they are naive. Gusher EVER BEAN ‘AD? “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” could well be the motto of Thompson and Morgan Ltd., the Ipswich based Seed Merchants. Last year they announced lithe new vegetable bean ”Fiskeby V the most important new food in the history of this planet”. They sold 50,000 packets at 50p. But the bean was not a success. UC11: page 12

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Many gardeners, in fact, harvested fewer beans than they sowed. A lively correspondence on the bean’s failure began in the gardening press, culminating in a critical article in the Sunday Times last Autumn. In view of the fuss, one might have expected Thompson and Morgan to withdraw the bean but not a bit of it Undismayed, they’ve raised the,Price by 20 per cent and moved the bean up to the front of the catalogue, next to an advertisement for Friends of the Earth’s Vegetarian Cookbook (Diet for a Small Planet, by F.M. Lappe 75p). What’s more, in a remarkable display of hubris, they’ve committed themselves to a yield figure (equivalent to 14 Ib of Peans from one packet containing 5 oz of seed) a most unusual step for a seed merchant, particularly since this yield is about double the best figure we’ve heard about Actually, of course, this commitment is less than it seems. Thompson and Morgan’s Terms of Business state quite clearly: It is not a condition of sale, neither do we warrant, expressly or impliedly or by any statute or enactment that the seeds, bulbs, roots or other goods supplied by us shall correspond with the descriptions under which they are sold, and ‘We regret that we cannot be responsible for the crop, Just as well, after last year. Fiskeby V is a new strain of temperate soya bean, developed by the Swedish firm Weibulls of Landskrona, South of Stockholm. It is derived from the soya beans grown in North Japan on the foggy shores of the Ohotsi Sea. This is the coolest area in the world outside Northern Europe where soya is grown. In Sweden, it is grown both as a vegetable and as a farm crop. T & M have acquired the world rights;: for Fiskeby V outside Sweden, though production of the seed beans is controlled by Weibulls, who are unable to meet the demand that has been created. T & M expect to sell more than 50,000 packets this year and to have to disappoint a further 25,000 customers. This is peanuts, of course, compared to the quantities of seed that would be needed if it became established as a farm crop in the temperate world. There appear to be three problems with Fiskeby V: UC11: page 13

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to get it to germinate; to get it to grow; and to get it to yield. As to the first, The Plant Varieties and Seeds Act (1964) requires the seed to be capable of 80% germination under ideal conditions. Anyone who is doubtful about this year’s seed should contact his local Plant Health and Seeds Inspector who will arrange an independent test. Supplying seed that fails to meet the required germination standard is a criminal offence carrying a maximum penalty of £400. The only snag is that the minimum weight of seed required for the test (0.9kg) is equivalent to about 7 packets. But since the germination of all this year’s supply is in question, no doubt Thompson and Morgan would be glad to supply a suitable sample. As to the failure of the plants that do germinate to grow, T & M’s Managing Director, himself. admits that the are puzzled. They considered giving them a nitrogen inoculation to supplement that fixed by the bean’s bacteria, but Weibull’s advised them that there was no point. The low yield they attribute to the cold weather we had in July last year which reduced the number of flowers set on each plant. Fair enough, but this brings us to the central problem that they seem reluctant to face up to: is the British climate reliable enough to make Fiskeby worth growing? If it is going to fail (say) one year in three because of the weather then it will never be more than a luxury or curiosity, like, for example, sweet com in the North of England. Last year we were told that the bean had been bred “North of Aberdeen” a_reference to landskrona in Sweden, which enjoys a much hotter and more reliable summer than Northern Scotland. This misleading statement has been replaced this year by a reference to cold and windswept Suffolk! The failure of Fiskeby V is important because people are not growing the bean for fun but because they need it, and the proteinhungry world does. Hopefully, it is premature to dismiss it on one season’s failure. But if it really won’t grow in the British climate, someone should breed a strain that will. WHAT’S ON A ONEDAY event organised by the International Solar Energy Society (UK) and the British PhotoBiology Society has Biological ‘Conversion Systems as its main topic, and covers the biological conversion of solar UC11: page 14

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energy. production processes in conifer forests. and aquatic systems. The date is Friday June 27th and the venue is Imperial College. London. Further details from Dr. J. Barber. Dept. of Botany • Imperial College, London SW7. MONTREUX, Switzerland is to be the scene of the First International Conference on Conversion of Refuse to Energy, from November 3rd 5 tho Information from the Conference Secretary. Mr. C. D.Herrmann, P.O. Box 511. 8021 Zurich, Switzerland. CREATIVE SOCIAL SURVIVAL are holding a threeweek summer camp at Cam Houses Farm, Wharfedale No. Yorks.. from 6th 27th August. Learn to overcome attitudes and values which prevent a harmonious change of lifestyle, share your skills and crafts establishing an instant village and explore the personal implications of world crises. Inquiries Tony Hodgson, Shantock Studio, Bovingdon, Herts, IIP3 ONG. KNOW YOUR SOIL a oneweek course arranged by the Soil Association called .. A Biological Approach to Soil Husbandry” will be held at Ewell County Technical College. England from July 7th” 11th 1975. The course has been planned to provide a balance between a simple scientific introduction to soil biology and the practical application of organic farming methods. The fifth in a series. it will include guidance on small scale husbandry. Also included will be a visit to an organic farm or market garden. Course fee of £22 covers tuition, two meals a day, coffee and tea. Accommodation can be arranged through the college or independently. Information.and booking forms from Mrs. J. GriffithsJones, The Soil Association, Walnut Tree Manor, Haughley, Suffolk IPt4 3RS. COME TO THE CIDER MEET, in Normandy. July 12th 19th. Ferry your bike across the Channel (pretty cheap) to Cherbourg and then embark on a week of cycle rides long or short picnics, folksinging and camping in Saint La, Coutrances and Cherbourg. Films and talks on environment. energy and pollution, organic farming and Ecology. Organised by the Cyclists Touring Dub (French Version) with the help of Friends of the Earth and Nature et Progres.. Further information and bookings from Jean Pierre Ledunois, c/o 700 Purley Way, Croydon, Surrey CR9 4QX. UC11: page 15

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WAR RESISTERS INTERNATIONAL are hold! ing their 15th Triennial conference from the 12 19 July this year, at the Leeuwenhorst Congres Center, Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands. It is to be a festival of nonviolent political alter. natives, a sharing of ideas, experiences, visions and skills., with workshops, happenings and exhibits for four days, followed by four days for discussion among WRI members. Details, etc, from War Resisters International, 35 Rue Van Elewyckstraat, Brussels, 1050, Belgium. AND DON’T FORGET: There’s a big rally in protest against the new Antiabortion Bill, in London on 21 st June. It needs your support Don’t miss the Brighton EnviroFair, on June 14 and 15 at Sussex University, Falmer, Brighton. And here’s another reminder that this year’s COMTEK Community Technology Festival is being run in conjunction with the Bath Arts Festival in Bath. From August 2 to 10. Be there!

SELF SUFFICIENCY SILLY Senior Scientist says “We have made so many mistakes, there can’t be any more .…“ With this jesting reply Dr. Walter Marshall, Chief Scientist at the Department of Energy, put down a sceptical questioner about the nuclear power programme during the recent ‘selfsufficiency’ conference, organised by New Scientist, at the Cafe Royal in London. Some might think that such a crucial question deserved a more serious and considered reply, but not Marshall. As Director of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, he ought to be well aware of the dangers of nuclear power, but if so he gave no sign of it Instead, like a new graduate from a course in Positive Thinking he radiated confidence in our ability to find technical solutions to the problems that face us. It was a useful piece of PR for the Department of Energy, but no more than that. Actually the very fact of the conference was more interesting than its content. New Scientist is a responsible’ paper : it wants to be read and respected in the corridors of power (we, mercifully, have no such UC11: page 16

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pretensions). So what is it doing dabbling with what Marshall called the “silly” subject of selfsufficiency? IPC Business Training Ltd., who are professional conference organisers, originally proposed a conference on Energy Conservation. When the asked New Scientist (also owned by IPC) for their opinion, they were persuaded to go for selfsufficiency instead a decision they must now regret. Only S5 delegates attended the conference supposedly aimed ‘at the highest level, to explore a coherent strategy for our nation’. And only 33 of them paid their £40 for the privilege. The rest were from The Press. (Who says there’s no free lunch?) Still, New Scientist got’ five long articles for its March 20 issue, and the fact that Marshall’s paper was his first public statement in his new job got the conference and therefore New Scientist good coverage in the media. Whether the delegates got value for money is much more doubtful. Participation from the floor was kept to a minimum; one speaker was told to shut up with surprising rudeness by the conference Chairman, BBC Chairman Sir Michael Swann. If this is how our elite behave to their peers what can they think of the rest of us? On the other hand several boring prepared “interjections” were accepted, even though they were totally irrelevant to such discussion as there was. Peter Laurie, the conference organiser, should consult the OED: Interjection: “a natural exclamation like ah! or whew!’ (or “bosh’‘‘, perhaps?) RAPE! The day was not all wasted. In the afternoon Dr. Kenneth Blaxter gave a long and substantial answer to the question ‘Can Britain Feed Herself?’ This is printed in full in New Scientist and should be read by any serious student of the problem. He concludes that it can be done, even without the mass return to the land which some of us would like to see. In fact, it would only require an increase in the farm labour force of about onethird. The main constraint is not protein, as one might think, but fat: we only produce one tenth of the fats we eat, The solution is to grow more oilseed rape and to make margarine out of it. Sixty times UC11: page 17

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as much in fact. (This would also please the bees and their keepers: rape is an excellent source of nectar). It is quite impossible to produce enough butter to fill the gap. There simply isn’t the land. In fact our present consumption of butter, 16 Ib per head per year, of which we produce only a quarter, would be cut to 2 Ib per head per year. Butter would become a luxury: we’d all have to eat marge instead. Is this too high a price to pay for selfsufficiency? WHERE HAVE ALL THE FOE’rs GONE? Walter Marshall’s breezy optimism about nuclear power may not be justified by the facts, but on present showing he has little enough to fear from Britain’s infant antinuclear protest movement The march to Downing Street on March 22nd to present an antinuclear power petition, organised by the Conservation Society (Con Soc) and Friends ‘of the Earth (FOE), was supported by only 90 people, mostly from Con Soc. FOE’ers, though supposedly the more radical group, were thin on the ground. The Camden FOE Group, for example, (with the honourable exception of their coordinator, Julia Turnbull) elected to spend the morning shifting the tons of (now valueless) waste paper they had diligently been collecting. And they are supposed to be one of the most active and radical lOCal groups. A fine sense of priorities. But it does show how much we have to do, at the most basic level: putting the facts out and raising consciousness, before a pr.oper campaign can be started. The meeting convened after the march, held at Friends of the Earth, to decide where to go from here was no more encouraging. There was no agenda, and nothing was decided. In fact, it made Undercurrents meetings seem positively businesslike in comparison. Con Soc and FOE agreed to go their separate ways. Con Soc favour the constitutional approach letters to MPs, and so on. Their campaign is now being organised by Ms. Beryl Kemp (33 Has luck Gardens, New Barnet, Hens). Anyone who still thinks this sort of thing worth doing should contact her. UC11: page 18

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FOE are continuing their low key campaign. They are concentrating on building up a solid base of wellinformed opinion in the country as the first priority; they are trying to stir up local opposition at proposed power station sites; and WaIter Patterson is writing a new pamphlet The Fissile Society a critical review of British energy policy (such as it is). FOE pointed out that they couldn’t orchestrate an antinuclear campaign from Poland St. This is certainly true: they have a highly anarchic constitution which allows each local group to decide for itself what issues to campaign on. But there is a widespread realisation that FOE is about something more important than collecting wine bottles and wastepaper, but this feeling has yet to crystallise into a coherent consensus. Hopefully, when it does, the results may be quite startling. To help the process along we urge disaffected radicals of all kinds to join their local FOE group (it costs nothing) and to work to turn it away from garbage collection to more serious tasks. Friends of the Earth 9 Poland Street, London W1V 3DG. Phone: 014376121 (Tom Burke is Local Group Coordinator) Conservation SocietY Antinuclear campaign Ms Beryl Kemp, 33 Hasluck Gardens, New Barnet, Hens. Phone: 01 449 5969. AUSTRALIA: RADICAL ECOLOGY A RADICAL ECOLOGY Conference was held at Melbourne University over Easter. It was attended by environmentalists, conservationists, students, unionists, feminists, alternative technologists, leftwing radicals, alternative society people and Canberra bureaucrats. The problem from the beginning seemed to be how such a diverse lot of opinions could be welded into a whole, so that people could understand one another and work towards common goals. Even if the goal of a low energy society was accepted, how are we going to get there? The New South Wales Builders Labourers gave their ideas on withholding labour from undesirable projects and there was the unusual phenomenon UC11: page 19

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of the theorist academic trying to learn from the worker. Col James of Sydney Uni’s Ecohouse and Ecotech workshop enthused: “it was great to have the worker, the hippie and the academic working together”. A new publication ‘The Radical Ecologist” came out during the conference, and will continue. Also, networks of likeminded people interested in such subjects as alternative technology and lifestyles, have been set up throughout the country. (Radical Ecologist, p,O, Box 87, Carlton South, Vic. 3053). Each day was a miniature learning exchange. People initiatedtheir own groups, made it know what they were discussing where, and you chose which you wanted to attend. A daily newspaper summarised what had happened and general meetings “tried” to reach consensus. Threequarters of the conference marched to downtown Melbourne on the anti uranium issue, and mass demonstrations have been arranged for later in the year. (Friends of the Earth are organising this campaign branches in all capital cities. H/ O, 59 MacCarthar PI. Carlton Vic 3053). Many participants rode bicycles to the conference, and some even brought them from interstate on public transport. _ One evangelist of the bicycle, I Alan Parker, managed to resuscitate the issue of the bicycle, bicycle tracks, and bicycles feeding public transport systems, at every available opportunity. He practices what he preaches and believe!> that we must develop a “nonviolent” transportation system. (Alan Parker: 515 Derby Crescent, Carnegie 3163 Vic_ 2 page spread on his ideas from Digger P.O. Box 77, Carlton Vic 3053). The everpresent problem of such policies causing unemployment was raised continually, It was pointed out that people could exist on less wages if they didn’t run a car, and if they knew how to use their back yards to grow vegetables and fruit The CSI RO recently found that 90% of food’s cost is in the transportation from the grower to our mouths. Re search in england by the Henry Doubleday Research Assoc. has shown that 50% of a family’s food needs could be catered for by backyard growing. Noone denied that we could live this way, but how many people would want to? Some conference participants were honest enough to admit that UC11: page 20

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they were addicted to the easy ways of affluent Western society, even though they were alienated. Others who had changed their lifestyles tried to explain that it wasn’t very difficult, and a creative experience. The more political participants keep pointing out that it was all hopeless as long as we had a growthoriented capitalist economy. For instance, noone owns the sun, so there has been no concerted effort to 'manufacture’ solar energy. Gabriel Lafitte commented that although the home consumption of energy is not at a problem level, industry will keep on manufacturing gadgets that will increase our need for energy, oil, uranium, etc., because they must to gain more profit. Barry Weissberg, from the USA, added that Exxon (Esso) “has a navy bigger than the USSR, and it is in their interests to keep the’ capitalist countries overdeveloped and the third world countries in their current state as a cheap raw material market for the overdeveloped countries” 6 SWITZERlAND: SOlAR POWER Solar Energy A solar energy association (SSES) has existed for about one year. It’s quite busy; they have organised a oneday symposium at Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute in CH8803 Ruschlikon. The Swiss solar association also has proposed a “national heatingoileconomy program”: if, for every inhabitant of Switzerland, a collector of about 2 squaremeters were erected, there would be a saving of about one million of tons of oil a year, The collectors would only cover the needs of warm water in summer. On Swiss television there have been two or three programmes about “soft technology” and especially solar energy. The foto shows one project which has been working for one year. The 10 square meters installation is for heating water, but in spring and autumn it also helps heat the house, It works quite well, because this house hasn’t conventional centralheating, but floorheating, which needs a lower temperature. This year, there are two conferences planned: one in German (in Berne on 19 and 20 June) and one in French (Lausanne, 9 June)_ The SSES also produces a bulletin for members in French and German. It comes out four times UC11: page 21

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a year and there is a lot of good stuff about sun in it. Specially good is the “manual” which is made up of parts appearing in every issue. Contact: SSES, Leonhardstr. 27, CH8001 Zurich, Switzerland. Catalog We are a group of three members producing a sort of “Whole Swiss Catalog”. It’s called “Alternativkatalog”. The first part, with information about housebuilding, communities, communications, transport and recycling, is now out. The 100 pages paper costs 10 Swiss francs (about £1.50) and is available at GD1, Park im Gruene, CH8803 Ruschlikon. Alternative Press I’d like to tell you just about Blabla . The name Blabla comes from OIblaues blatt” that means blue paper and some people say the stuff in it is quite blah blah , . _ well, . _ At the moment there are about 500 subscribers_ They read about such alternatives as biological agriculture, solar energy and so on. Political questions are also touched on, and every issue tells about interesting conference dates and contains some ads. Blab! a is written in German and available at: Box 97, CH 2900 Porrentruy. A subscription for 26 issues (about one year) costs about £3. There are a lot of other things happening. Just now, a lot of people are involved in an occupation of the site for a future atomicreactor: About 16,000 people were at a demonstration, and the government is quite embarrassed ... A group at the biggest technical high school is preparing an exhibition about alternatives” and ecological problems. It will be opened on 12 May. Contact AGU, Box 2111, CH8028 Zurich, Switzerland. GOING DOWN The population of West Germany fell last year by 110,000 (0.2%). This is the result of a large excess of deaths over births (T01,000) and a small net emigration (9,000). And a recent poll in Germany has found that the average desired family size has fallen from two and a half children in 1973 to just under two in 1974. Who’s next for the ZPG club? UC11: page 22

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Page 7 Letters ATOMS "TOO SAFE" I recently wrote to the Guardian Royal Exchange and told them that, since I felt the risk of damaGe to my house from the nuclear power programme was rather severe, I would like the policy to be revised to cover such risks. I got the answer I expected, of course. The company told me that it was their universal policy, agreed with all other insurance firms, to make a general exception of nuclear risks, both arising from bombs and from nuclear power stations. They made this exclusion since they regarded the risks from nuclear contamination as beinG "so remote". First time I've heard of an insurance company unwilling to insure someone against some contingency because it was remote! They should jump at the chance. It seems that there was some kind of convention agreed between the insurance companies and the government somewhat equivalent to the American PriceAnderson Act whereby it was decided generally not to take on any responsibilities in the case of nuclear risks. Guardian Royal Exchange referred me to the Department of the Environment but I haven't taken the thing any further. I wonder if you think that it might be worth pursuing. Best wishes Philip Steadman, 85 Norwich Street, Cambridge. CODESWALLOP Having just received my 'newstyle' driving licence from the Swansea licensing centre, and scanned it for possible mistakes, I was amused to notice that one may remove one's date of birth from the bottom righthand corner by cutting along the dotted line provided. But if anyone, self conscious of his/her age, believes that once the offending corner has been removed his/her date of birth may no longer be read from the rest of the sheet, he/she should look again. At the top of the licence appears a code number which is merely an I anagram', of one's date of birth. UC11: page 23

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Here are three examples of existing code numbers with their respective dates of birth: Code Date of Birth 410085 8/10/45 402114 11/2/44 408046 4/8/46. Here's how it works: Day: 4th & 5th digits Month: 2nd & 3rd digits Year: 1st & 6th digits. Is someone trying to fool us? Yours faithfully, Keith John Semell, Boleskine House, Foyers, Inverness, Scotland. NO TOYS PLEASE Somebody doing his own trip, farm, community, selfsufficiency etc, needs info based on the following criteria: (1) efficiency, (2) safety, (3) economy. Somebody writing about A.T. should bear in mind: (1) equipment should be made, tested and proved to fall into the 3 above categories nobody wants to build a machine which someone thinks will work, but doesn't; (2) people need detailed designs, building processes, and a list of tools needed (3) results and improvements should be published, with figures (4) the law, if any, concerning the work should be clearly studied and stated (5) perhaps above all, the safety of those making, using and living near the equipment (‘near’ a 3x2 metre bladed windmill is up to 1 km. or perhaps more) (6) and above all, the equipment should be of true practical use and not a toy. The last 6 criteria, I hope, should avoid accidents, financial loss and despair, which many A.T. articles (one or two in Undercurrents) evoke. I have almost Got the bread together to start building:; methanemakers to power my tractor. I am encouraging liaison between several isolated communities here in Aude, to exchange ideas. tools, resources and manpower. in order to realize some A. '1'. ideas. So please, anyone in France (or GB) who has had experience in proven UC11: page 24

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A.T., please write or come, because A.T. is not backed by people who think that 'community' is the easy way out, or who don't want to get it together seriously, but by people who have enough energy to get things together today, for tomorrow. Rory, Garage Citroen, 11 rue de la Gare, 11000 Espereza, Aude, France. ELECT A DIGGER The Digger Party of Albion was originally conceived by members of the Digger Movement of the 60s, whose personal attempts to lead a more. suitable lifestyle were found to be impossible under the circumstances imposed by the greater society. Whereas it is quite possible and comparatively easier for those with silver spoons in their mouths to take their consuming ways "back to the country", it is not so easy for those from humbler backgrounds. Although there is much more organisation, mainly intercommunication, required some of us hope to seeDigger candidates across t:le country in the Local Council Elections in 1976, not only as an attempt to win seats but also to bring the attention of the media and therefore the masses to our ideas, which with the state of things are rapidly becoming necessary changes. Yours fraternally, A Spokesman, 2 John St., Truro. CROP YIELDS I must congratulate you on your feature "All hands to the spade II in the last issue. It is very rare to find a good, well researched article in this field, and Pat Pringle has successfully scoured and brought together the available literature. The problem is, however, that because there is so very little information on vegetable yields, it would be rash to place too much reliance on these figures. In addition, no allowance is made for regional variations or crop results on different soils. The H.D.R.A as part of its experimental programme will this year be asking Members to select one or tTIO garden crops and accurately measure the amount of food they get. It is hoped that we will get sufficient replies to be able to compile more correct vegetable yield statistics. In addition, we are investigating intensive crop rotations to try UC11: page 25

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and extract the maximum food production from a small area of land. If any reader of Undercurrents would li help in the above survey, would she or he please send a stamped addressed envelope marked II fruit and vegetable yield survey 1975" to the address below for further details. Yours faithfully, Alan Gear, Deputy Director, Henry Doubleday Research Association, Bocking, Braintree, Essex. 7

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Page 8 Browning and Clutterbuck Is there a Radical Science? This is a reply to our report of the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science's "Socialist Science" conference in Undercurrents 10. The authors, both of whom have been associated with BSSRS and Undercurrents for some time, feel strongly that the report failed to do justice to the Conference and to the views expressed there. While we feel that their reaction may be a little oversensitive, we admit that the conference did deserve a better analysis than we, for reasons of space, time and numerous other factors, were able to give it. Here, then, is a more considered view. This reply comes not from any BSSRS 'doctrineridden', 'preWar world view' 'faithful', but from two individuals who work for a liberated society. We, too, have criticisms of that Conference. The structure prevented any easy interchanges and people were trying to discuss too many things. The papers on Russian, Chinese and Cuban science were meant to be informative, but at least one was off the subject. The main criticism must be reserved for elitist Eric Burhop, who spoke from the chair about Russia. That his views did not find agreement in the conference was shown by a walkout, an extended critical discussion, and an irate letter from Burhop to BSSRS afterwards. To imply that the conference had an 'all's well with Russia' view is, quite simply, wrong. Criticism should be made on the basis of understanding, not of ignorance, of what was going on. That such an attack should come in an issue introduced with the lines "the spirit of mutual aid ... is one which we would like to see more evidence of in other radical circles" makes it inexcusable. It seems that the writer listened to only one paper that of Mike Cooley and managed to misunderstand that. Mike spoke about the proletarianisation of scientists, how they are now more obviousIy part of the production forces, and how they are becoming aware of that. He was not talking of "scientists forcing evils on workers" such terminology implies ideas of responsibility of individuals and ignores the oppression of scientists as production workers in industry. UC11: page 27

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When the author talked of 'top people on the front row', he (?) conveyed the impression of the whole thing being elitist, without managing to mention the fact that the 'front row' was the 'Women in Science' collective, whose paper strongly challenged the hierarchical, elitist, and sexist organisation of science. Why did the author not mention the sort of liberation which they talked of? Did he even listen to it? Similarly, most of the substance of the rest of the conference was ignored i.e. all the papers dealing with trying to understand oppression. And that understanding ain't easy: it don't grow on windmills. Simon Pickvance talked of the way he was being used, for other people's objectives, I in the laboratory, with no consideration of his needs and safety etc •. Althea Jones spoke on the role of science and technology in the oppression of the 3rd world countries; how high technologies, the green revolution and scientific 'expertise', have been foisted on other countries, for the benefit of ruling elites in capitalist countries. The whole of Sunday was given over to a free discussion of the issues, generally oscillating between 'traditional' and libertarian' socialist positions. The review was insulting to the people present, by implying general agreements, rather than constructive Disagreements on discussion. BSSRS is an umbrella organisation. Probably the most significant contribution came from Bob Young, who set out to show that the way science is done depends on the relations between people. The forms of organisation determine what science gets done, and who benefits from that. As long as we work in our present structure, science is developed for the benefit of a minority. Alternatives that benefit a majority have been dismissed. His most unique contribution was in out lining the way in which this 'moving on' could be achieved. That means not just talking about it, but living it in our lives and organisations prefiguring socialism; and that requires a critical Marxist analysis, for which we need to use the tool of dialectics, to be aware of our position and to liberate ourselves. Now, words like 'dialectics' and 'ideology' put some people off. Ideas like 'forces of production' make others shudder. But unless Undercurrents begins to feel these forces, it will merely become a consumer guide to AT, or a news sheet The report was symptomatic of an increasing trend towards sensational and speculative journalism. If Undercurrents is to call UC11: page 28

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itself 'the magazine of radical science', then it has got to start discussing what this means. There was a time when Undercurrents would not have done a joint issue with Resurgence. The only article in that issue that attempted to get to grips with some of the problems was that by Dave Elliot and Colin Stoneman. Surely, what we are supposed to be do ing 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. That isn't easy; exactly how it can be done, we don't know. It is doubtful whether BSSR succeeds, but it tries. We should be taking our 'skills' to where they are most needed and where they have most effect. Saving energy, for example, means little if the institutions which create the I waste are not challenged. Selfsufficiency i for a few individuals means nothing if I monopoly capital continues to dominate I world food markets and peoples' lives. ‘Peoples' technology’ has shown us how technologies can be used to control our own environments; simple techniques can also be developed to monitor filthy work] conditions. It is possible to have technologies that are developed and controlled by people rather than having technologies I developed for efficiency, profits and accumulation of wealth, which control the people working them. That means taking our ideas to where people are ruled by these existing technologies, where they j work ever more in shifts, and in unhealthy and mentally constraining condition People work there, not through lack of concern with these condition, but because they have to work. That means facing all sorts of contradictions which we've not begun to understand and articulate. Does it make any difference to a production line worker whether he/she is producing a windmill or a Concorde? Is it possible to have a factory under workers' control I say at Triumph, Meriden that questions both the production process and the product? Or is it more likely that normal economistic demands are transcended to question working conditions, through I the usual union procedures as has occurred with Citroen workers? t These are some of the questions that need to be thrown up. There are no easy answers. If there were, it would be a different society now. The thing nor to do is to dismiss these questions by putting I some label on them, and then presuming that liberation will come with the advent of a new radical technological fix. UC11: page 29

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Gavin Browning and Charlie Clutterbuck POINTS FROM THE POST "If executives and young: professionals do yoga, grow organic food or even drop, out to the Highlands or wherever and 'reject' the ratrace, this does not mean that social divisions arc disappearing in the face of New Age love, peace and harmony. These people unfortunately seem to take with them to their new life the desire to dominate, to control and to despise ordinary folk (or just to ignore their existence)” Mike Grey, Brora, Scotlanda "A.T. is a free enterprise movement by its very nature. If one of your AT socialists made an A.T. breakthrough it would help to defeat his or her political aims a Go back to stirrinG it up at British Leylands!” Rowland Kennard, Christchurch. "You ignore peoplea You talk about 'gadgets' which are technology with the people extracted, you talk about 'ideology' which is society with the people extracted a Real people seem to embarass you.a ••• I don't think UC is helping A.T. or helping society. It's become a trade journal, ideological, Gadgety, dehumanised a There's more life and feeling in my monthly copy 0 the Metallurgist" Paul Higson. Burscough Lancs.

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Page 9 COMTEK Rides Again! YES:THERE IS going to be a Comtek Festival again this year. It will take on a similar format to that of last Year except that it will fun for nine days instead of four from August 2nd to 10th, and it will be integrated with the community/arts/theatre /music side of the Bath Arts Festival and held on the same site. The exhibition/festival is free to all participants. Help with accommodation and expenses can be arranged, so any group which wishes to come should get in touch with us soon. We hope all those who came last year will come again and many more besides. The response so far has been very good and since space is limited please write soon. Alternative technology, we believe, is not "alternative" unless it is made available to the community. AT has nothing to do with the mail ordering of massproduced items, such as black anodized aluminium sun traps which probably cost as much in energy terms to produce as they will ever be able to provide. The real alternative and the only way to breakdown the present technocratic totalitarianism is by the free communication of knowhow and the encouragement of cooperative "DoitYourself", involving the adhoc use of cheap or reclaimed materials. The ideal context for this sort of interaction is a communitybased festival; I think we can talk from experience. Last year's Comtek 74' was the genesis of community technology in Bath. This time last year most of us knew little about AT, and the local people knew even less. But, after the exhibition many people who came as participants joined our cooperative and helped in the setting up of our building reclamation depot. We now have wood and metal workshops with a forge and welding facilities, a bicycle workshop, a materials reclamation store and a builders' cooperative. We have also just opened up a Comtek Studio with multimedia equipment such as video, film, sound, and photography, all these facilities arc available to anyone who wants to use them. It has taken quite a long time to get all these things together, but the point is that the original aims of Comtek, written down on a grubby piece of paper over a year ago, are at last beginning to work. It began with the community architectural service which aimed to UC11: page 31

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provide a cheap (or even free) service to people who could not otherwise afford to improve their homes offering help with planning permissions, building regulations and improvement grant applications. The building cooperative then followed, undertaking the work on some of these schemes with prices about onethird of that normally expected. Cheapness is achieved in three main ways:1. All workers receive relatively low wages (£15 per week. Survival on this amount is made possible because Bath Arts Workshop has many different units which can provide a cheaper lifestyle in such things as transport, food, accommodation, administrative backup and so on. 2. The 'client' is able to do some of the work himself, thus cutting labour costs. 3. Many reclaimed materials are used such as doors, windows, bathroom fittings and Bath stone (most buildings round here are in a conservation area). Through our building activities we have a good mechanism for the application of some AT hardware. For example, one of the schemes currently under way includes a solar roof as part of an improvement grant scheme. In another case, involving the renovation of six small cottages into four new units we have actually managed to get approval for a methane digestor not to mention a possible solar panel and wind generator: this is also part of a standard improvement grant scheme. We envisage that the largest of the four new units will be about 50% energy autonomous for a negligible extra capital cost. The important thing about these jobs, however, is that they are not being done for affluent people who have money to experiment with fashionable ideologies, but for 'ordinary country folk' who could probably not even afford conventional improvements to their property. This is Community technology and at last we have something to get our teeth into. The moral of this Iittle tale is: don't miss Comtek '75. P.S. We have printed a directory of Comtek 74 which attempts to summarise what was happening in the AT field last summer, including over 600 addresses of various groups throughout the country who are UC11: page 32

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involved in alternative/community work. If you would like one of these directories please send 25p plus postage to Comtek, The Depot, Weymouth Street, Bath. Manufacturers & The Bath Festival. This year, as last year, the Bath Community Festival will incorporate many examples of home built Alternative Technology. Following the success of last year's festival, several AT organisations have offered to supply some of their equipment to add to the Festival For instance, Hugh Sharman and LIT have very kindly loaned us a complete windgenerator unit the 200 W windcharger. If any other commercial groups would like to exhibit some of their equipment, then please contact John Potter, c/o Bath Arts Workshop, 146 Walcot Street, Bath. Phone Bath 64429.

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Page 10 Campbell Aberfeldy: the Third World begins at Home UNDERCURRENTS' persononthespotintheglens recently took a trip, alongside the media hordes, to a small highland community Strathtay, the upper area of the Tay valley centred on the town of Aberfeldy. The Elysium sought at Aberfeldy is a familiar one to Undercurrents readers, the goal of a selfsufficient community. Out despite the recent accumulation of articles about self sufficiency at Aberfeldy, what the group there is talking about is rather different. .... The Strathtay region is fertile; much of the farming is concentrated on sheep and beef cattle some 30,000 head, mostly sheep. Oats, barley and wheat are produced, milled and used locally. Aberfeldy's mill, run by a local merchant, stone grinds, driven by a ten foot water wheel. Two staples porridge and flour are produced by the mill. Potatoes and eggs complete the picture, a very different one from 100 years ago, when a larger population produced all their food directly from the land (and not a little for the lairds). The changes of the last century are felt very keenly by many of the farmers. Their farming roots in an isolated area of Scotland have generated social attitudes very different from those of the entrepreneurial farmers of more southern parts. They feel, with varying degrees of articulation. that the external market system Imposed on them by industrial capitalism has subverted their roles and lifestyles. Agriculture has shifted from small scale selfsufficient diversity to stultifying monoculture. As the regional monoculture has developed, demand for industrial products has been. As the regional monoculture has developed, demand for industrial products has been forced on the community typically,the demand for artificial fertilisers to support highyield strains of crops. Another example of this process at Aberfeldy is the absence of dairy farming, and the consequent transport of milk 33 miles from Perth. No fresh local vegetables are available. And, alltootypically for a community with abundant wind and water, Aberfeldy draws its energy from outside, via the HydroElectric Boards grid centre ironically just a few miles away at Pitlochry. UC11: page 34

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But it is more than just the distortion of agriculture that has motivated the Aberfeldy group. One of the, a doctor, is an active campaigner for naturally grown and fresh food. He sees the pattern of modern diseases ulcers, dental caries, cancer as a direct result of the change in nutrition and consumption again imposed by outside industrial forces. Increasingly, processed and tinned food has replaced traditional produce in the community's diet. It is in this context, and that of the recent dramatic price inflation, that the group's suggestions must be seen. It is not selfsufficiency as an ideal, or the need to 'survive' against some threat that has motivated them. Rather, they are reacting to oppression by the cities, the wealthy and industrialised regions of Britain. They refer to themselves as the "primary producers", and wonder at the economic system which has so devalued them and their work especially recently. They are suspicious of government and its activities; run from and mandated by the city and industrial majority, they see it as "run by industrialists for industrialists". The group, which has a core of about a dozen including several farmers, a doctor, and the merchant/miller, first met and spoke in September 1974. They made suggestions to the community around and in Aberfeldy about impending shortages of food, and urged the cultivation of back gardens in the town, walled gardens at the larger country houses, and of spare areas of land. Dairy produce should once again be available from local farms. Local game should no longer be exported. There has been some response; the group has continued to meet informally and have had discussions with local councils, the Farmers Union and the people of Aberfeldy. Some of the town's fallow land is now raising vegetables. AT has even crept in, through a visit from the area's solitary solar heater owner, from some miles down the river Tay. His main hope, however, is to obtain electricity from a stream beside his house, and he suggests that eventually electric power might be obtained for the community from turbines in culverts beside the fastflowing Tay. But the greater response has come from the media. A steady stream has tripped along to discover Aberfeldy's plans for selfsufficiency and survival. Says John CampbellSmith, a cattle farmer from UC11: page 35

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Glen Lyon. "Newspapers have perpetuated the idea that we'd come up with a plan for survival. The initiative has slipped away from our grasp. One or two of us now are almost professional interviewees." Selfsufficiency, survival, is a growing business. New Scientist organises conferences about it; North Sea oil preoccupies the pundits. And the media snap it up which hasn't helped the ideas from aberfeldy. Selfsufficiency and survival have roots in the authoritarian 'private armies' of the right just as much as in libertarian socialism. The stories from Aberfeldy now are about the balance of payments or worse. 'Doom Valley', blared the Scottish Daily Mail in its contribution to the bandwagon. A recent Scotsman article demonstrated a characteristic obsession with the water wheel, while saying nothing, of the original ideas. Oppression and exploitation from outside are no strangers to Scotland from the highland clearances to the class struggle on Clydeside'. My view of Aberfeldy is rather different matters not to farmers here about indus trial class struggles; their lives and work have been dominated by external change in economics, in technology, and only eventually in social patterns. (Indeed the 'change point' of the area might well be the arrival of the railway technology of t 1860's). The nearest parallel to their attitudes is not among the communes movement, but among those third world countries who see clearly their exploitation by the rich industrial countries. The gross imbalance between producers and consumers the cities contain most of the people but produce virtually no food is seen as an instability, leading eventually to food price inflation and eventually shortage, and the downfall of the cities. We've seen this future before. But its worth listening to one particular view, again from John CampbellSmith, who believes that "industrial and financial society will collapse .. People will return to the land". He sees this happening not with relish or despair, but with a prophetic neutral acceptance ( the inevitable. He expects trekkers from the city, coming back to the land, indeed squatting and homesteading on the farming land on his farm just as others. His timescale, in months rather than years, we might disagree with. But it does show how remote this community is from the media which have so eagerly approached them, and from industrial society. The' farmer's national lobby today speaks in a very different language. Their members are entrepreneur. who have industrialised their farms, and whose command of economics is turned to the service of their profits. The initiative from Aberfeldy, mainly from farmers also, has a very UC11: page 36

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different form, and one which may grow; they represent the 'Third World' of rural Britain. Duncan Campbell Scotland oppressed: watch or read 'The Cheviot. The Stag. and The Black Black Oil', stirring and near revolutionary street theatre by John McGrath. Somehow, Its been on the BBC, twice! (copies available from West Highland Free Press, Kyleakin, Isle of Skye, or Better Books, Edinburgh. Also the Red Book on Scotland to be reviewed In the next Issue of Undercurrents. (from EUSPB, Buccleugh Gardens, Edinburgh).

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Pages 11-14 Lee on honey HONEY IS a tremendously versatile and useful commodity whose value has been underestimated until recently because of the abundance of cheap, refined sugar. Honey can be used in place of sugar for nearly all culinary purposes (reducing the amount used by onethird) and food will be better in nutritional value and taste. Honey is also an antiseptic in fact some hospitals now use honeyimpregnated dressings. Lemon and honey is often used to relieve colds and sore throats, and honey and glycerine ointment is good for bruises and chapped faces and hands. Bees are easy to keep. Once the initial investment in equipment has been made, they will supply honey free of charge, and provide as a bonus wax for making candles and furniture polish. (A cake of wax is also useful for stopping drawers from sticking by waxing_the runners; and sewing thread which has been pulled across a cake of beeswax does not tangle or knot) But the prime importance of beekeeping to the community as a whole though perhaps not to the beekeeper is the fact that bees are the most important pollinating insects in existence. Pollination will improve in areas surrounding hives, and, if bees are kept in an orchard, especially one containing apples and cherries, then the amount and quality of fruit produced will greatly improve. In ancient times honey was greatly prized. There is a neolithic wall painting showing a man robbing a wild colony of bees of their honey. In Britain, the 'washings' from honeycombs after the honey had been extracted were made into a mead drink. The word ale is derived from the Danish 5( originally a type of mead; and the word beer comes from the Saxon beor, meaning a bee. In fact when hop drinks were first introduced into England by Flemish immigrants they were prohibited because they "spoilt the taste of the drink (and) endangered the life of the people". Early hives were made of straw, wicker and mud, or rushes, and at the end,of each season the bees would either be driven off and the honey removed in which case the colony would nearly always perish or the bees were UC11: page 38

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killed by the owner of the hive and the combs, grubs, eggs and all were crushed and hung up in muslin so that the honey dripped out into a bowl. This method of keeping bees was in use until quite recently in some country areas, and a few old cottages still have cavities in the walls to accommodate straw skeps'. In 1789 a 'leafhive' was developed. This consisted of hinged wooden frames which could be separated and examined without disturbing the bees unduly. But. the most useful advance in beekeeping was in 1851 when Langstroth, an American beekeeper, designed an opentopped hive, rather like those in use today, which incorporated the discovery that if frames were !4" apart, bees would use this space as a passageway and would not try either to fill it in with comb, as they would if it was larger, or block it up with propolis (a sticky substance made of sap), as they would if it was smaller. The discovery of this 'bee space', and the development of a hive of moveable and interchangeable parts, meant that beekeeping could develop from a hunting activity into a craft which exploited the natural lifestyle of the bee. Behaviour of Bees Anyone deciding to keep bees will find the experience far more rewarding if they try to discover all they can about the ways in which bees live and work. Bees and wasps differ mainly in that the food of wasps is nectar, fruit juice, and animals such as insects and dead birds and mammals; bees on the other hand live wholly on nectar and pollen from flowers, Bees can be divided into solitary and social species and obviously domestic honey bees are evolved from the latter. A swarm of bees, such as you may have seen hanging from the branch of a tree, is a mass of insects clinging together; it may weigh up to 6 Ibs, and contain up to 50,000 insects. A bee colony (which is a swarm housed in a hive, tree, or cave) is really one creature with many separate parts: the whole cannot exist without the individuals who each have their appointed tasks. Swarming is the bee's way of reproducing the colony. A swarm which is seeking a new UC11: page 39

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home will have left its old one because the hive had become too full of honey and new bees. The bees leaving the hive will be the older ones, and they will be accompanied by the old queen who will have left some embryo queens behind her in the hive to hatch when she has left. Queens A mated queen is essential to the continued existence of a colony. She will have to lay up to 200,000 eggs a year to ensure a continuous supply of workers, and a few hundred unfertilized eggs which will produce drones. The queen is like the brain of the colony she holds the unit together as an entity; she does this by secreting 'queen substance' which the colony passes from one to the other. By constantly receiving this substance, the individual bees know that all is well and the queen is there. If the queen is removed from the colony the bees are aware of it and become agitated quite quickly because they miss this substance. A queen is produced from an egg laid in a queen cell before the old queen has swarmed taking older members of the colony with her. If a queen dies, or is accidentally killed, then workers can produce a queen themselves by changing an ordinary cell containing a female worker grub into the long hanging queen cell shape, and by feeding her with a very special rich food secreted from the heads of the 'nursery' workers called 'royal jelly'. A diet of royal jelly makes a perfect female bee: but the workers, though female, are all underdeveloped. Nearly always, more than one queen cell is made, and either the first queen to hatch will go round and find the other queen cells and made a hole in them and sting the occupant to death, or, in the event of two hatching at once, a fight will take place and the winner will sting her opponent to death. The workers take no part in these fights, merely disposing of the body of the vanquished. The new virgin queen will make herself acquainted with the hive for a few days, and she will then start to take a few exploratory nights, varying from two or three minutes, and lengthening to 10 or 15 minutes. These enable the queen to establish the position of the hive in relation to surrounding objects. In about 10 days she will be ready to mate; there is no , reliable evidence to show how often she mates, but Butler (see bibliography), believes that most queens mate with about five drones UC11: page 40

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before laying any eggs. On her ,mating flight, the queen leaves the hive and is followed by a stream of drones; the fastest flying drones mate with her and then die, since the act of mating tears out their genitalia. The queen returns to the flight board of the hive where she is greeted, cleaned and divested of bits of genitals by workers, The sperm she has received will remain alive stored in her sperm reservoir and probably lasts her the rest of her life. On the queen's return after her mating flight the workers' attitude towards her changes. They become markedly more attentive, and those near her will turn towards her and touch her body with their 12 antennae and periodically lick it. When the queen solicits food from them, workers will provide it by regurgitating nectar or honey (this differs from the food which workers provide for brood or young bees, which is mixed with pollen and known as brood food). Three to four days after mating, the queen is ready to lay eggs. She will lay these in the brood area of the hive, the temperature of which is constantly around 90" F achieved in winter by the colony clustering around the brood area where the metabolism of the bees and larvae produces this amount of heat. In summer when coolness is required, the bees disperse throughout the colony and will sometimes fan with their wings to produce more cool air inside the hive. The queen lays eggs in hexagonal cells, the same size and shape as those in which the honey is stored. There are two sizes of cell: the smaller size produces workers (underdeveloped females), and the larger size produces drones (males). In fact, the size of the cell determines the sex of the emergent bee. If the queen puts her abdomen into a larger cell then the egg passes straight out of her body unfertilized and will produce a drone; whereas with the smaller cell, as the egg is squeezed out it is fertilised with sperm and will produce a worker. In winter, a brood area will be concentrated in the centre of a comb, and usually workers will be hatched from there. As the weather becomes warmer and the colony disperses to the edges of combs, where drone cells are usually situated, then drones are hatched out ready for spring mating. The incubation period for an egg is three days. Eggs hatch into white grubs and nursery workers will help keep the grubs warm and feed them until they fill their cell, which takes five days for a worker and six days for UC11: page 41

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a drone. The larva will then spin a cocoon and it will be shut up in its cell by means of a wax cap. When it emerges it is a fully formed bee. A worker takes 21 days to appear from the egg, a drone 24 days, and a queen 15 days. The new bee will bite through its wax capping and will be helped out by nursery workers, cleaned and groomed and fed. At first its body is sticky, so all parts of it are rubbed down 'and polished. The new bee's first job will be to look after newlyhatched larvae, and it will progress to other jobs around the hive, cleaning out old egg cells, fetching and carrying stores of honey and pollen, and then perhaps guard duty at the entrance, and finally foraging. A queen will generally live for two or three years, and will lay up to 600.000 eggs in that time, but queens have been known to live twice as long as this. When the queen begins to become old and weak she will be replaced by a daughter reared to replace her. Workers and the division of labour in the hive. When the worker has just hatched, and for the first two or three weeks of her life, she will be engaged in housework' and for the next two weeks in foraging in the fields. As a rule the harder a bee works the shorter her life span. Bees reared in the summer months when there is a great deal of activity live for about five weeks, while those reared in the autumn may live over until the following spring, because bees do very little work in the winter. A few hours after hatching and frequently after this the new bee will solicit food from passing workers. This process, which involves the older worker in regurgitating brood food (a mixture of nectar and pollen), also results in the exchange of queen substance, to assure the bees in the colony that the queen is still there. The new bee will go on soliciting food and cleaning out cells, or remaining on the brood and helping to incubate it. After four days she will start to help herself to honey from the stores, and will also eat pollen which is stored in cells. The pollen will provide her with protein which helps develop the glands which secrete brood food, and it is at this stage that the worker will be involved in feeding young larvae. Gradually the pharyngeal glands which secrete the brood food will become smaller, and the wax producing glands in the abdomen will have become more active, so the young bee will begin comb building and repairing cells. At about this time she starts to make her first orientation' flights. Colin Butler UC11: page 42

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suggests that the reason why the bee leaves the hive at this time is because she is stimulated to defecate, this is the first time that she will have done so. Bees never defecate inside the hive if they are healthy. He next task will be taking supplies of nectar and pollen from returning foragers and putting them into stores; at this time too she will be cleaning the hive of debris. Then when she has had enough orientation flights to know her way about she will start to forage for all the things the hive needs, nectar, pollen, water, propolis (a waxy substance like that found on sticky buds, which bees use to stop up gaps and holes in the hive). The worker will continue to forage until she dies one or two weeks later. Some young foragers, but not all, will act as guard bees at the entrance

in between their expeditions. The guards 'check' each incoming bee to make sure by smell and touch that it belongs to the colony and is not a robber. The foraging bees communicate with the others by means of a dance which tells the hive bees where food is, how much there is, how.far, and in which direction. The study of communication among bees has been beautifully described by Karl von Frisch in The Dancing Bees: an account of the life and senses of the honey bee. Frisch's work in the field of bee communication, which he carried out in the thirties, has still not been superceded. Foraging bees will normally collect nectar (the small amount of sweet liquid substance at the base of petals which attracts insects into the flower) thereby causing crosspollination as pollen from one flower is taken on the bee's hairy body to another plant, where, if the plant is of the same species, it will fertilize the plant. This can often occur within one flower, but plant strains become stronger and healthier after crosspollination. Nectar consists of water and sugar with traces of protein, salts, acids, enzymes, and aromatic substances. When bees make honey from nectar they break down the sugars it contains into simple sugars, glucose and fructose; they do this by means of an enzyme, invertase. When a foraging bee returns to the hive she regurgitates the contents of her honey stomach, and it is given to UC11: page 43

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one of the household bees who will go into a quiet part of the hive and 'process' it This consists of swallowing and regurgitating the honey over and over again while water is removed from the nectar by evaporation in the warm atmosphere of the hive. When the honey is ready it is placed in a storage cell and a full cell is capped over with wax. Honey which has not been properly prepared in this way would be liable to ferment. The honey stomach of a bee is designed so that if she needs sustenance while foraging she can open a part of the stomach and release some nectar into her own system. If the hive lacks substances other than nectar pollen for instance an individual bee will feel a craving for this substance she will be attracted by the dances of pollen foragers, and will go an fetch pollen. If she in turn comes back and performs a pollen dance she will recruit pollen foragers until enough of the substance has been stored. Drones Drone cells are most often at the edges of frames, and they will be filled with larvae as the weather becomes warmer and the bees start to move outwards from the tight cluster. they occupy in winter at the centre of the brood area. The queen then has more room to move out and lay drone eggs, which are unfertilized and produce male bees. Drones are usually reared in the spring ready for mating. They live about 4 5 weeks in the summer and are sexually mature at about two weeks. They obtain their food by begging from workers, or helping themselves from stores. They live in the hive, and are always found congregated in the warmest part, which means they at least help incubate brood. They fly out on warm afternoons but do not gather nectar. Because of the large numbers of drones in a hive it is unlikely that most of them will ever mate. In the autumn when nectar starts to become scarce, workers will refuse to feed drones, or will refuse them access to stores. When the drones are starving they will fall to the bottom of the hive, and they are then taken outside by the workers and left in the cold to die. (When the temperature drops below about 46° F, bees become chilled and paralysed and soon die.) Beekeeping UC11: page 44

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Beekeeping can be done by almost anyone, almost anywhere. It is perfectly possible to keep bees in towns and this has been done in cities like New York and London they can be kept on rooftops, or in back gardens. There is usually ample food available from parks and gardens in . towns, and town bees suffer less than country bees from crop spraying. They require little attention: none at all in winter, and even in summer all that is usually required is a weekly or fortnightly check to see that all is well in the hive. Certain precautions should be taken against bee stings: they dislike the smells of perspiration, tobacco, alcohol, and perfume, and they do not like dark colours or sudden movements. Try to see that you visit your bees on warm sunny days between 10 and 2pm, when most workers will be out foraging. Always move quietly and slowly around bees, and wear a bee veil and gloves. It is essential to find out before keeping bees whether or not you are allergic to their venom. Very few people actually are, and a doctor or hospital would 'probably be able to give you some tests to find out. Every beekeep.er must expect to be stung eventually, but if it is any consolation, the stings grow less painful the more you have, and your body develops a tolerance to the venom. In compensation, since bee venom is sometimes used to treat arthritis and rheumatism, beekeepers seldom suffer from these painful complaints. If you are stung, do not squeeze out the sting. This compresses the venom sac and releases more poison into your bloodstream. If the sting remains in, then scrape it off with a knife or thumbnail. Usually there will be a swelling round the sting area which may get worse the next day. But it will eventually subside, and it looks worse than it feels. Most remedies only aggravate the swelling a little honey rubbed over the area is as effective as anything else. If anyone is stung and suffers an extreme reaction such as collapse, then of course they should be taken to a doctor at once. This is most unusual, though, and after beekeeping for a while almost complete immunity is obtained. I have known a beekeeper of many years standing who was stung about the face by a crowd of angry bees after their hive was moved, and he did not feel their stings or have the slightest swelling. Bees, however, are much too busy to worry about humans as a general rule, and if you let them get on with their work they will not bother you. If proper precautions are taken, then it is unusual to UC11: page 45

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receive more than three or four stings, if any, in a season. Beekeeping is best begun in Spring in the middle of April in the South, and the beginning of May in the North. Once one has assembled the necessary equipment, the best way to obtain the bees assuming that you do not come across an unclaimed swarm is to buy a 'nucleus'; this is a young miniature colony living on a few frames. It is advisable to obtain a guarantee that such bees are healthy and that they accord with the British Standard as approved by the British Beekeepers Association. If bees are bought in this way then they are unlikely to produce much surplus honey in their first season as they will be busy building up their stock. Italian breeds are probably the best for beginners. They are gentle, prolific, and have a high resistance to disease. Site An orchard is ideal, but anywhere, preferably shaded, will do. The hive entrance should face away from paths and roads, as bees tend to fly in a straight line out and in. (If the bees have a fence placed a few yards away, they will rise above it. This raises their flight path and they do not fly down again straight away.) Don't put bees in a field with other animals: the hives will be over turned. and the animals stung. In towns, bees may be kept in attics (with access to outside L and on rooftops. Hives If a hive is bought secondhand, then it should be thoroughly cleaned and even gone over with a blow lamp if possible, to sterilize it in case previous occupants were diseased. New hives are very expensive. One solution is to make one's own, but it is important to make all the parts to the standard dimensions given in the Ministry pamphlet (sec bibliography), so that if additional frames are acquired they will fit the hive. Probably the best and simplest hive to use for beekeeping in Britain is the National (sec pamphlet). An additional piece of useful equipment is a 'queen excluder' a piece of zinc or wire grid with mesh the right size to exclude the passageway of the queen, but large enough for all the worker bees to pass through. This enables you to confine the queen to the lower chamber of the hive (the brood chamber), so that the upper part of UC11: page 46

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the hive (the 'super') contains only honey and no brood. Then, when the time comes to remove the surplus honey in the top of the hive, there are no eggs or larvae mixed in with it. An important development for beekeeping was the introduction of wax foundation. This consists of sheets of wax impressed with the shape of cells (usually workersized cells) which are inserted in wooden frames and put into the hive. They will be drawn out by the bees into the comb, ensuring that comb is built in the correct place and with the desired cell type. A bee consumes about ten units of honey to produce one unit of wax. and recycling of wax by providing foundation, and returning empty frames to the hive helps to increase the honey harvest. A 'smoker' is a further useful piece of equipment. This is a device which puffs out smoke to subdue the bees while they are being examined. Bees are afraid of smoke: forest fires were one of their natural enemies in the wild when they built hives in trees. the smell of smoke induces them to run for the honey stores and gorge themselves on honey. If bees are full of honey they are unable to sting because if their stomach is full of honey they cannot curve their bodies round to use their sting. This is why a swarm of bees is unlikely to sting anyone, because before leaving the hive the bees will have had a farewell feast to last them until they find a new home. The best thing to do if you are seriously thinking of taking up beekeeping is to join your local Beekeeping Association. Beekeeping is something best learned from others who have had practical experience, because it is very daunting to be faced with a hive full of buzzing bees and not know what to do. Another possibility would be to get in touch with your Local Authority and sec if they have a Beekeeping Officer. ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT Bees (swarm or nucleus) Hive (preferably a National) Frames Queen excluder Smoker Bee veil Beekeeping gloves (These have specially thick material the bess can't sting through Knife or hive tool for scraping off brace comb and propolis. (The bees will otherwise stick down the top of the hive with these substances and make it difficult UC11: page 47

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to remove the lid without shaking the rest. Vaseline smeared on the joints will help to prevent this. Hiving a swarm Hold a box or straw skep under the swarm and shake the branch or whatever it is the bees have settled on. I f they do not shake off then brush them gently into the container with your arm or a soft brush. Then turn the container upside down and place it on a large cloth preferably something large and white such as 8. sheet and prop up one side so that the bees can fly in and out freely. Until evening the container should stand where the bees were swarming (but shade it if it is in a very hot exposed place). When all the bees have collected, which they will have done by evening, carry off the container to the hive you have ready. Open the top of the hive and shake about half the bees on to the frames in the hive, then replace the I id and put the skep near to the entrance. The bees outside will hear the buzz of those inside, and will go in through the entrance to join them. At first it is a good idea to feed the bees in their new home with sugar solution or honey, placed in a jam jar with holes pierced in the lid. If this is placed on top of the hive so that the bees can reach it (see diagram of hive), it will encourage the bees to set up home in that hive. After this, the hive should be left quite alone for at least a week. If the bees are disturbed they may leave the hive or kill the queen, since they blame her for any misfortune which may occur. After about a week the hive can be examined; this should be done on a warm sunny day at about noon Everything should be done slowly and calmly, with as little disturbance as possible. Use the smoker to puff into the hive two or three times at the entrance. Slowly remove the roof, remove the feeder, and puff a bit more smoke over the frames. Lift a few out and examine them you are looking to see if there is any brood, eggs or larvae. This will show the queen is laying, and you should be able to see how well the bees are progressing with their honey stores. Always replace the frames in the order you removethem: the bees know what they are doing and you don't. Never hold a frame horizontally and risk the weight of wax and honey breaking it: always hold them vertically. If the swarm UC11: page 48

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is progressing well, then arrange the frames, in the brood chamber and place the queen excluder on top of the frames, then add a super containing more storage frames. Honey Flows This is the name given to times when there is an abundance of nectar being produced, either from one particular crop. or several. The main flows come from fruit blossom, clover, limes, and heather, and occur May, June, July and August. Heather is not often available in Britain under the right conditions, but when honey is obtained from heather it has a particular jellylike consistency and is very difficult to extract, but it is the most nutritious honey available. The surplus for the year is generally all stored by the end of July, or beginning of August, so in an ordinary year this is the best time to remove honey. The bees should be allowed to keep any more they may gather. Extraction An extractor is an expensive item and is another reason why it is a good idea to join a Beekeeping Society, because things like this are usually kept in common and made available to members who need them. The frames are fitted into the extractor and whirled round very fast so that the honey is flung out and drips down to the bottom of the extractor where there is a tap so that the honey can be poured straight into jars. Manipulation Some beekeepers manipulate their stocks frequently, particularly to practice their own favourite form of swarm prevention, while others believe that the minimum amount of interference with the natural functions of the colony is best. Thus, at the two extremes, there are those beekeepers who open their hives once a week during spring and summer, and those who do so only three or four times a year, Most books on beekeeping are written by the first sort of beekeeper as they tend to be fanatical about bees. The second sort, naturally, have very much less to say. Those operations which are generally considered to be essential are; cleaning of the hive in April/ May; addition of queen excluder and extra chambers for honey storage and brood rearing in May/June/July;' and removal of surplus honey July/ August. UC11: page 49

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Sylvia Lee BIBLIOGRAPHY Butler, Colin. The World of the Honeybee. Collins. 1954 (Revised ed. 1962) New Naturalist Series. £ 2.10. Despite emanating. from Rothampstead, well worth reading. Really for those with some basic knowledge of the life of the bee. Covers much up to date research into bee behaviour. Lindauer, M. Communication among social bees. Harvard U.P. 1961 £3.30. MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES & FOOD PAMPHLETS Advice to intending beekeepers. Advisory leaflet no. 283. Revised 1966. Bees for fruit pollination. Advisory leaflet 328. Revised 1971. Beeswax from the apiary. Advisory leaflet no. 347.1959. The British National Hive. Advisory leaflet no. 367. 1961. (This gives dimensions for making hive). Feeding bees. Advisory leaflet 412. 1963. Migratory beekeeping Advisory leaflet 344. 1950 The pollination of apples and pears. Advisory leaflet 377. Revised 1971. Ribbands, C. R. The Behaviour and Social Life of honeybees. Dover, 1969. £1.50. Frisch, Karl Von. Bees, Their Vision, Chemic.: al Senses and Language. Cape P. 1968. £0.50. Frisch, Karl Von The Dancing Bees. \Methuen. 1970 £.1.30. Well worth reading.

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Pages 15-17 Elliott How The Land Turned Sour IN THE PRESENT economic climate we are used to hearing of firms folding and businesses crashing. But it's not the economic recession that's behind the problems that seem to be undermining BRAD's brave effort to investigate and demonstrate the feasibility of alternative small scale technology and alternative life styles. The founders, Robin and Janine Clarke left some time ago, as a result of a disagreement over the relative importance of alternative community life styles. Were communal life styles the means to the end of developing A.T. or the other way around? Or were they inseparable? Cynics would say that it is impossible to retreat from society you carry the disease with you. The history of retreatist communities illustrates that most of the longterm (i.e. more than one generation) successes were those which based themselves on, or developed, authoritarian Of monastic tendencies. Their success depended on intense identification with, usually, a religious ideal; their discipline relied on belief in a 'higher authority'; and they became hierarchical and inward looking. Modern examples abound. For example: "Each village will be virtually completely selfcontained, selfcontrolled and selfsufficient unto itself, like one big happy family or local tribe. . .' the villagers would:. till the surrounding landl grow their own crops harvest their own foodl make what few necessities they need, clothing, housing, implements, tools etc. right there in their own little villages. ." Not a manifesto that many Undercurrents readers would object to ... but it comes from The Children of God who add: I: . God's government is going to be based on the small village plan, each one circular with radial streets like the spokes of a wheel centering at the hub of God's local administration by you and me {that is, the elite members of the Children of God] ruling in love over the villagers of this world ... " n •• it will take supernatural administrators to run it, the angelic saints we will then be, with superhuman bodies and miraculous powers to use when necessary to enforce God's Will upon any who dare to defy His wise, loving and caring angelic administration ... ,,1 This prescription for a return to theocratic feudalism (or a 'divine technocracy' perhaps) is obviously pretty extreme but it does highlight UC11: page 51

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some of the dangers inherent in pseudodecentral retreatism. The Nazi state also made much use of "God, blood and land" myths to underpin its dictatorship. Those communities based on more temporal themes such as Robert Owen's communities and many of the radical collectives and communes of the past few years lacked this strong central authoritarian control and fell apart. Their commitment to political projects and programmes seemed insufficient to shield them from internal psychological stresses, doctrinal disputes and the effects of environmental pressures. It is possible to argue that they were simply badly designed, structurally deficient or over structured, or that they were torn apart by economic forces impinging from outside. (This latter argument is, of course, often used, on the global scale, to explain Soviet Russia's degeneration). Perhaps such collapses could be traced to the more subtle effect of the remnants of attitudes learnt outside, or insidiously filtering in. And undoubtedly stresses can also be generated within small communities as a consequence of their isolation and the (too) close contact amongst members. Does this mean that the commune ideal can only work after the total network of socioeconomic relations in the wider society have been changed? Cannot we experiment with alternative life styles within the small insulated group? Is A.T. a strong enough theme to hold together such a group? These are all questions that BRAD, now reduced to four members, are likely to have to face. The central question is whether it is true that, as Dickson says in his Alternative Technology: 'Only when we have created a viable political alternative shall we be in a position to perceive the real needs for a community science or an alternative technology.' Or whether piecemeal experiments can go hand in hand with and in fact aid the political transition. Although retreatist communes may be able to make some valuable contributions to the transition to a more socially and environmentally appropriate society, there UC11: page 52

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is obviously also a need for a strategy or programme that would enable people to start from where they are that is, in existing communities, jobs and so on. After all, BRAD and similar groups are often made up of middle class individuals who can cash in their middle class credentials, mortgages and so on, and fund their experiments. They can also reenter conventional jobs if they fail. It's all part of the current inequality in 'life chances'. But for most other people, the options are fewer and the only source of capital is often the state. Certainly those who have droppedout in the underground are healthily supported by the welfare state. But can staterun schemes or funds be used safely in this way on a wide scale? Certainly they give people the chance to be a little more flexible. But can we use them to support and develop an alternative society? Would more selfreliant developments be more appropriate? Or, alternatively, would it be better to concentrate on collective organisation and growth of political strength rather than toy with 'premature' utopian experiments? Some people believe that more or less independent developments within or at least on the fringes of the existing society can enable people to move towards alternative styles of living and working and finally to an alternative society. As Peter Harper put it in Undercurrents 6: " .. premature attempts to create alternative social, economic and technical organisation for production can contribute in a significant way to the achievement of political conditions that will finally allow them to be fully implemented. These premature development projects can both act as motivating 'utopias', thus aiding and stimulating the transition,and also help sort out some of the practical problems whether at the level of technology or communal organisation". But alone this is not enough. There is a need for other developments, strategies and changes. Philip Brachi, reporting on BRAD's. solar roof, points out that AT alone " .. is not going to change the world, or anything very much, and will be lovingly coopted by big business. Yet AT is not alone, but part of something far larger, less obvious. The manifestations are everywhere; UC11: page 53

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free schools and housing associations, food and craft coops, white bicycles, squats and workins".! These counterculture developments within the 'underground' can be seen as embryonic formulations of the alternative society. At the same time, changes are also occurring within the mainstream of society such as flexible working hours, job enrichment, creches and childminding facIlities, community land grants, grants for small scale industries, a whole range of welfare and education provisions. To varying degrees these might enable people to experiment with different 'work' and 'leisure' patterns and to vary their lifestyles. Hopeful people exploring alternatives within the system in this way might be able to make use of the experience of those on the fringe: the 'underground' can thus act as a source of ideas and alternatives. But there is a danger with this piecemeal approach, based as it is on reform within, and the support of, the system it is the danger of cooption. It is perhaps dangerous to rely too much on the benevolence of capitalism, even in its socialdemocratic/liberal guise. These new developments are only introduced in order to head off conflict. as sops. The paternalistic system can, if it finds that such freedoms are being 'abused' or that "they no longer serve its purpose, withdraw them. Guaranteed wages, welfare provisions the dole and the other components of the welfare state were rapidly modified during the thirties when capitalism was faced with an economic crisis. Perhaps it would be wiser to develop our own independent schemes, rather than rely too much on the state, as the experience of some 30's schemes shows. 'The Land Settlement Association scheme provides training for unemployed workers in farm management and horticulture. After a period of training, families are moved to smallholdings, the buildings of which have been constructed by collective efforts of a group of trainees. The small holdings are run as satellites.to a central farm, harvesting etc.:. is done collectively and distribution is managed cooperatively, although each smallholding is designed to be a selfsupporting unit" Not a blueprint for the 1980's or an anarchosyndicalist prescription in the 1880's but part of the Land Settlement Associations scheme established in the 1930's in Britain, as one 'solution' to the recession. Other ideas included work camps set up by the government to retrain workers in new skills, and massive relocation schemes. Since we are again faced with UC11: page 54

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recession (and an environmental crisis) it is worth looking more closely at these ideas to see' what are the implications of relying on statederived 'solutions'. Idyllic as Land settlement schemes may sound, there is an immense danger of exploitation. For while such schemes could provide the chance for people to develop selfsufficient life styles, equally they could lead to a new form of feudalism, with the workers permanently constrained in 'tied' cottages, forever paying off their training and equipment debts. This danger is highlighted by the history of the Government's retraining camps. Government training centres had been set up in 1925, providing courses of six months duration in bricklaying, carpentry, plastering, painting, wood machining, cabinetmaking, upholstering, French polishing and so on. But they were insufficient to deal with the flood of unskilled workers that were thrown out of work during the recession. The Ministry of Labour's Instructional Centre, the first of which opened in 1929, were geared to training the lessskilled worker. Labour Exchange managers pressed the unemployed to volunteer as trainees on twelve week sessions. Most of the camps were in remote districts and they were usually residential, men being housed in barracklike huts. A married man with adult dependents received four shillings per week plus the dependent's benefit; a single man just 4s. While at the camp he would cease to draw labour exchange benefits, the rest of his benefit being claimed to cover the cost of maintenance at the camp. The work was usually forestclearing, roadmaking, drainage, timbering, excavating, quarrying and levelling. Although some efforts were also made at providing rudimentary training in carpentry, bootrepairing and so on, the emphasis was heavily on outdoor heavy manual work. It is not surprising that the centres came to be called 'slave camps' and earned the hostility of the labour movement. The conditions were atrocious many trainees left and there were numerous demonstrations, strikes and walkouts. The trainees often had to work in bad weather, the food was poor, the living accommodation was bad, visits home or to local towns were limited, the clothes and beds provided were lousy, medical aid minimal (many men not used to the rough conditions of outdoor life had physical or mental breakdowns), UC11: page 55

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and the camp managers were usually authoritarian types with a military background. The whole thing smelled of forcedlabour camps and indeed Hitler was setting up just such a system in Germany at the same time, a point not lost on those who opposed the British equivalent. The situation looked even grimmer when it was realised that under the 1934 Unemployment Act attendance at these instructional camps could be made compulsory for persons who came under the Unemployment Assistance Board, if the Government so desired. The basic motivation behind the camps may have been philanthropic, but it rested on the classridden notion that workers would be happy to have some work, whatever it was, and at whatever pay. It was also a cheap way to get 'public works' done. As the Royal Commission on Unemployment said in 1932: "It is hardly possible to avoid the question as to whether, by the organisation of some form of public work, use could not be made of this great reserve of valuable labour, and the workers have the satisfaction of giving some return for the money expended on their maintenance. . .. In Germany ... some considerable success has been achieved in this respect, and"" believe that something of the sort is strongly desirable in this country. " The economic advantages were clear: it would cost £1 million to pay for such work at trade union rates using 4,000 men for twelve months whereas " ... to pay unemployment benefit to the same number of men for the same period would cost only about £240,000". By 1935, something like 7,000 men were involved on a voluntary basis, and although the Commission had recommended that this was the best way to proceed they also remarked that they " .. saw no objection in principle to the application of compulsion if opportunities exist for the provision of occupation for ablebodied unemployed 'workers after the resources of commercial employment and voluntary services are exhausted. U The history of the Land Settlement scheme does not stand alone. There have been numerous attempts to make it possible for people to return to the land for example the SmallHoldings and Allotments Acts of 1908,1919 and UC11: page 56

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1926. The Agricultural Land (Utilization) Act of 1931 was aimed particularly at settling un employed industrial workers on the land. It empowered the Ministry of Agriculture to provide smallholdings and, together with the Ministry of Labour, to set up Training Centres and Demonstration holdings. These schemes were not successful. Many of the exservicemen settled after the First World War under the 1919 Act lost their money. The number of applications was never great. The economic crisis of 1931 meant that government money was scarce and the 1931 Act was shelved. However the massive unemployment of the midthirties led to the revival of the idea. In 1934 the Ministry of Agriculture formed the Land Settlement Association, contributing £75,000 for three years on the basis of £1 for every £1 raised by public subscription. The trainees under this scheme were to spend one year under supervision during which they would receive only their unemployment benefit The net proceeds from the holding during the year would be retained by the organisation although in some cases it might be divided amongst the trainees at the end of their first year, if completed satisfactorily. At the end of the training period trainees who were considered satisfactory would be offered the tenancy of their own holdings at a 'fair' rent. The working capital provided by the State would be partly on loan and part a gift (usually SO/50). Many of those who took up this scheme were in fact driven into poverty. The farms were not economic. In any case many experienced smallholders were going bust at that time. The repayment and rent charges were often crippling. Being selfemployed, the smallholders were no longer eligible for the dole ..• In order to survive they were forced into competition with each other, with the existing smallholders who were more experienced, and with the larger, more efficient farms. So for many people, far from being an Arcadian escape, the result was several years of backbreaking work, frugal living and eventual destitution. In principle such schemes should have solved many problems after all, large numbers of people in Britain (and, of course, elsewhere) were undernourished. But at the same time, there was a world glut of agricultural products. The irrational forces of international capitalism and of entrepreneurial competition made it difficult to provide both work for UC11: page 57

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those who wanted to farm, and food for those who wanted to eat The message for us today is that we should realise, when thinking our way towards decentralised selfsufficiency, that it will be hard to make such a system work at the macrosocioeconomic level if we do no at the same time, consider radical restructuring the entire economic system. Without this more radical change, wellmeaning philanthropy can lead to (or be a disguise for) incipient fascism and a return to authoritarian feudalism. If food shortages and unemployment are once more a threat to those who hold power, then compulsory land settlement might be seen as the answer. THE WAY AHEAD Although these staterun schemes seem attractive, then, they can also lead to outcomes which are very far from ideal. Perhaps, therefore, we should concentrate on transitional developments over which the people concerned can have more direct control. It may be foolish to rely on the state, in any way, as those workers currentIy seeking aid from the state in order to set up workers cooperatives seem to have found. But it may be possible to shift the locus of control to some extent The struggle for workers control is not limited to the development of workers coops. Equally important are the daily struggles on the shop floor for it is the social and economic relationships at the point of production that determine much of the nature of our society. And it is on the shop floor, in the workplace, that the conflicts in society are often most clear. But there are also other, equally crucial interfaces and inter actions which have immense potential for collective control. There are numerous developments some independent, some state supported, in the communities in which people live: food coops, communally run allotments, local craft workshops and so on. There are already a number of Community Workshops established, where people can extend their 'doityourself craft skills and begin to fuse 'work' and 'leisure'. Some more ambitious groups are trYing to obtain government aid to purchase land so that they can set up communitycontrolled small scale industries, coops and so on the Liverpool Dockland Action group is one example. The recent Community Land Bill makes it possible for councils to purchase land and put it into community ownership. 2 Obviously such schemes are still dominated to some extent by the State, but perhaps the locus of UC11: page 58

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control can be shifted somewhat Whether this gradualist approach can in fact succeed, or whether more dramatic changes are necessary, is of course sill the crucial question; but if we remember the lessons of recent history we can at least use such schemes to test out our ideas without the naive illusions that made them so vulnerable in the past Dave Elliott References: 'Sun on the roof: New Scientist 19th September, 1974. Guardian, March 21st 1975. See also The Problem of Distressed Areas by Wal Hannington, Left Book Club Editions, Victor Gollancz, 1973. The propaganda film 'Here is the Land' produced by Paul Rotha (Strand Films 19371 deals with the land settlement scheme. For an excellent discussion of Community Workshops, see Anarchy No. 30 (Vol 3. No B. August 19631. LAND FOR THE PEOPLE THE RESPONSE to our Land Manifesto in the joint issue of Undercurrents and Resurgence has been good, but not overwhelming. , So far, (1st May), we've had 50 letters from groups and individuals all over Britain. That does not add up to a mass movement But it's a start It is good to know that there are al ready quite a number of groups in various parts of the country (Yorkshire, Cornwall, Scotland, Sussex, Gloucestershire, London, Wales, etc.) working towards the creation of new agriculturallybased villages. Some see the solution in working on individual schemes, others reckon that the necessary changes as regards to land and agriculture can only come about through radical changes in the ...role of society. The breach between these two approaches need not be irreconcilable! We have to resolve the contradiction that what we are working towards must first be tried out in practice. The farming communities of the future will not just be the same as those of the past Alternative technology and science, and UC11: page 59

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advanced methods of organic agriculture, can provide the basis for a much more satisfactory life on the land than is possible now. But this has to be tried out ... it must be shown that it can work before it will be regarded as a realistic and desirable option. In the meantime we've got to do our homework. Every letter we have received has stressed the need for joint action on the question of land. But before effective action is possible we must first understand all the issues involved. This means a great deal of work, study and discussion. The first meeting of "Land for the People" will be at the People's Free Festival (Enviro FairlJ) at Sussex University, Brighton on Sunday, June 15th, at 11 a.m. We shall have practically the whole of Sunday for discussion. Topics will include: Lane and Landownership; methods of land cultivation; Landlords, farmers and farmworkers; agriculture and industry; land and energy; village planning and layout; people, landowners and government; social life in the country. There will be some speakers, but mainly well informed discussion. In August at Comtek in Bath we can continue the debate and, hopefully, start taking concrete action to get land for the people. This must become a popular movement Land is Life ... we've got plenty of work to do! Come and join us in Brighton on June 15th and/or write to Land for the People, c/o Sa Leighton Cresc., London NW5.

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Pages 18-20 Elen Mysterious Energies It has long been the intention of this magazine to include articles on subjects like UFO's, meditation, ley lines, dowsing, ESP and similar mystical' manifestations which can be grouped under the general heading freak science', But somehow it never seemed to happen. The subjects appeared to float just beyond reach, and were consigned to the outer darkness of postpublication waste bins. However, the publication of a new book on the subject of ley lines and their attendant manifestations seemed a good enough place to begin our quest, and so the intrepid Undercurrents Freak Science Research Team, consisting of Chris Hutton Squire, his ally Rex Holman and Richard Elen, made the long trek up to the county of Cleveland (Durham) Hartlepool:to be precise to visit Paul Screeton, editor of the Ley Hunter and author of the new book Quicksilver Heritage. It should perhaps be explained exactly what 'Leylines' are. The word 'ley' was coined in 1921 by Alfred Watkins, who rediscovered the interesting fact that a great many prehistoric sites appear to lie on a network of straight lines, a network which covers not only the British Isles, but also, recent research indicates, many parts of Europe and the world. Watkins called these lines leys' because the word appeared frequently as a prefix of suffix in names associated with these sites_ He felt they had some significance beyond use as trade routes and paths for pilgrims_ This is borne out by the fact that many alignments may be traced over cliffs, through bogs, and across lakes and other natural obstacles. But Watkins himself was always unwilling to admit possible 'occult' implications of leys, and it was not until the work of such people as John Michell and Paul Screeton that a fuller picture began to emerge, suggesting a network of energy lines which prehistoric man not only knew about, but_ was able to understand and control. On arriving at Paul Screeton's home, . we sat down with some good local ale and some salad rolls and began the discussion which is here transcribed. Richard Elen began by mentioning that Screeton's book had impressed him particularly in that it covered a large amount of ground, including the 'spiritual' aspects of leys. an area often avoided. . . UC11: page 61

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Paul: I think that aspect is important in that Watkins, from The Old Straight Track' obviously had some realisation that there was a great deal of depth to it Just how he thought this might be developed, INe shall never know. Richard: I get the impression that he was slightly disturbed that there might be 'occult' connotations. Paul: His son, Allen Watkins, in his father's biography, described how he was disturbed about certain psychic happenings in his childhood. I find it one of the most interesting parts of the subject The mere fact that they linked sacred sites is a statement that this is where "" should really be looking. I think that John Michell, in The Old Stones of land's End has established the reality of leys. A lot of people are now working on computer programmes which make it possible to say that statistically, leys are a reality. Richard: In fact you give a statistical formula in your book. It always surprises me that some people are still doubting that they exist physically, let alone in any other way. Paul: To me the reality of it was brought home far more dramatically than anything I'd read at a place called Hart There is a stone where, about five years ago, I got a distinct tingling when I touched it, like pins and needles. On a future occasion, when my wife touched it, her had was just thrown off, it was so strong. I've also had some people sit on it, and it's helped them physically. Whether it was psychosomatic or not I don't know ... but certainly these people claimed to feel better. Chris: But how did you know about it in the first place? Paul: I didn't: it was pure chance, The only local tradition was that it was a 'wishing stone'. Once I was passing there with a gypsy and his wife, and he did a certain rite for us .... It's a very interesting stone it has the face of a dragon on it I've also felt a buzzing in the back of the neck at this stone and sometimes when standing on the ley lines themselves. The stone itself is in a terrestrial zodiac, like the one at Glastonbury. It's in Scorpio. I went up there with my gipsy friend and he said "It's Scorpio round here. If you check up, I bet you'll find a zodiac." And we went in the church nearby, and the vicar showed us the points of interest He said, "There's ten effigies up there, and another two over there, but they don't fit the zodiac ... " I'm quite sure that some of the vicars who retire to these country parishes do it deliberatEly to study these things ... !" UC11: page 62

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Richard: What do you think causes the gravitational anomalies like the one in Ranmore Common, which you mention in the book? Paul: Bill PortEr, who writEs for the Ley Hunter, says that from his researches quite a number of stone circles seem to have deliberately incorporated a stone of meteoric origin, including the Rollright Stones: I wonder if there's some kind of association here. For instance, Rosedale, near here, is supposed to have some terrific iron deposits which cause compasses of ships off the coast to go haywire. I don't know how that affects the ley situation. One of the things that I've made very plain in the book is that there is so much to be done; for instance, Michell, in The Flying Saucer Vision makes the comment that there are no experts onflying saucers. You could almost apply the same thing to ley hunting. Naone has yet come up with an allembracing theory which will tie all the various threads together. And whilst INe can't do that, a certain percentage of people are going to take the attitude that its a 'crank cult The one really good thing about it is that, unlike flying saucerdom,leys have not, so far at/east, brought in the religious cultists. Richard: Like the Aetherius society. Chris: This question of the sceptics: some of the Undercurrents group have mentioned how they have looked at maps to find leys and have failed. It strikes me that what is needed are some standard examples of good alignments that people can readily find, to demonstrate that there is at least something a bit odd. Paul: In the book, I have covered in detail the leys in a small area of Cleveland, and South Durham, giving their length, number of sites, and so on. If anybody wants to check those things, they are come to do just that As for long distance leys: that's something else ... Chris: There are these wild claims made for long distance leys that are rather difficult to check. Paul: Yes, I'm very, very sceptical. In the book I mention 'what are claimed as 'Primary leys', over long distance, for instance St Michael's Mount in Cornwall through to Mersea Island. Someone has been checking these, taking into account the curvature of the Earth but when you do it that way, it's not exact This is one aspect where a good equation is a necessary for checking those leys over long distances. Too many people like to think, for instance, that leys go round the world. They may do, but just to get your globe, or your Mercator's Projection, and draw a line, say through Delhi, Cairo etcetera, and say "They're all religious places, so there must be a big ley there" is UC11: page 63

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just quite ridiculous. I've never attempted to try to move one ley from one oneinch map to another, because I don't have the ability to do it accurately. Chris: This argument about curvature has been presented to me on several separate occasions, though without any exact knowledge as to how it works out, in terms of yards on the ground. What is your standard of accuracy? Paul: The question of standards of accuracy is a very difficult one, because, of course, the Ordnance Survey itself is not particularly accurate. When you go from a oneinch to a different scale, you will find differences. You just can't make maps totally accurate. This is one of the annoying things. A critic can easily say: nIt does this "on one map, but something else on another, and that proves you're wrong. " It proves that the OS can be wrong. It could a/so prove that we're wrong. To find absolute accuracy in this sort of thing ;s perhaps impossible. Not that I'm being ultracritical of the OS far from it I would hate to have to survey to that degree of accuracy. Some people might ask exactly how wide a ley is. I'm not particularly psychic, but you tend to get a fee/for it Certain people who are proficient at dowsing can tell the way in which the power is moving. If you want to get a feeling of what ley power is like, go into the crypt at Lastingham church, and it'll change your life. You'll come out of there quite different, especially if you're a sceptic. It's underneath this great big mound. You get that buzzing feeling: quite an extraordinary place. There's. a great history behind it all, and there's some dragon effigies down there as well. It realIy gets you, and this is what it's all about Richard: A theory I'm working on is that mounds like that, or Silbury, have a relation to Reich's Orgone Accumulators ... Paul: I've thought about this one too. A friend of mine told me about someone in his house who built an accumulator the place became red hot one day and the bloke's disappeared You hear so much about people who plan to make Or gone Accumulators but never actually do it There's great reason to feel a certain distrust of the way the US Government persecuted Reich. I think the energy in leys may possibly be related. Also, it definitely moves ... UC11: page 64

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Chris: So that a circle is only active at certain times? Paul: Yes. Certainly my experiences with the stone at Hart show that it is activated at certain times in this case, in the evening. Either that relates to the Sun doing down, or what, I just don't know. You see you needs number of people to work this out You can't do it in just one place. A massive programme would be needed to calculate anything. Chris: I find it disappointing that there is not more 'hard data' around. Paul: There should be. This is what I want in the Ley Hunter. Much of the work at present is just making sure the whole thing is mathematically viable. at I am saying in the book is two things. (a) The power in leys is in some way electromagnetic: you get an effect that is felt by one of the five physical senses; (b) that the effect is in some some way psychic, also: so many strange things happen along leys which don't seem to happen elsewhere, or certainly happen in a greater percentage along them and seem to be associated with them. This is 'what I'm really interested in. But there is also this very definite, physical manifestation that does not seem to have anything to do with the type of rock. If it was just the stone itself, you might expect the effect at any time of the day. But you don't I've checked this. I'm sure this is not subjective. Richard: You get the same feeling if you put your hand into an Orgone accumulator Paul: I think it's got a lot to do with these sorts of energy: orgone, Odic force, Prana, and so on ... Richard: What Reich called the 'Life Force' Chris: But you're talking about several different forces; I would expect there only to be one or two I don't accept that thereare so many. You're multiplying concepts beyond all reason. I can't believe the world is that complicated. Paul: I think this is a coherent philosophy. This power it's been named by a lot of people in different ways it seems to be the same energy. There's just one power. The same people call God by a million and one different names. Richard: All these forces have been defined the same way: as the 'Life Force' or something similar. I think its one force that manifests itself in a number of different ways, just as you can produce different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation from an electric current Its all the same energy. UC11: page 65

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Chris; If we accept, as a working hypothesis, that this particular stone is associated with some kind of energy, do we know if everybody can notice this, or only sensitives, or a number of different sorts of people who don't appear to have anything similar about them? Paul: My wife got a severe shock off this stone,and she is extremely sensitive and a psychic: I just got the pins and needles and the buzzing. This, and other instances suggest that it tends to affect the more psychicallyoriented people. I think this power has a relation with a ,lightly different plane, which impinges on ours. The fact that people see, for instance, elementals, that I have seen one slightly blurred, and Richard's seen one very clear/y, and is probably more psychic than me .. Richard: You're definitely psychic, by the way •.. Paul: What makes you say that? Richard: I just feel that you are I'm sorry, but I'm a bit of a subjective scientist these days ... ! Chris: He's really got no business writing for Undercurrents at all ... "you're fired"! Paul: I feel that prehistoric man IN8S, in some way, closer to this 'other dimension: I think that people who live in the country, rather than suburbia, are, equally, nearer to what, for want of a better word, we could call the 'essence' I don't use the word God. Prehistoric man, in his IN8Y, would have been far more receptive to such a power, and to understand it Especially since the Industrial Revolution we cannot so easily see through to this power, but certain people have got some kind of insight into it, and are trying to make some kind of way towards it: and perhaps leys are the:safest' way into this. There's so many 'loonies' who become attracted to the various occult sciences and who are led astray within them. I don't think that people who get interested in leys are necessarily any 'better off'. You can carry on doing what you want to you don't have to give up anything, but you find some particular reason for seeing history in some kind of perspective seeing life. But people who I've met, who are interested, find it very stimulating and helpful to them. Rex: Has anyone tried to measure this energy with anything except their own senses? Paul: There's been some attempt at dow sing the pattern of them. Rex: If it is, as you say, electromagnetic, is it not possible that some kind UC11: page 66

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of instrumentation could pick it up? Paul: That side of it should definitely be investigated Richard: Yes, it's still very much a subjective science. Paul: I would certainly think that the electromagnetic aspect could be measured. Then we could definitely get some kind of geologist along who would say "I see no reason .,why this type of stone should do that". Richard: Once upon a time I was moreorless a sensible, normal scientist, but I found that in this sort of field objective science has a disturbing tendency riot to work. It does rather annoy me that science will seldom accept the evidence of what is probably the best instrument we have namely ourselves: I know that if I feel a sensation, that sensation is there, just as if I see a meter move, I know that it actually did move. If we trust our vision, when it comes to reading a meter, why do we not trust our other senses? Rex: But what does 'objective' and 'subjective' mean in this sense? We can sit around and watch a meter and all agree that it moved; whether objectively, in truth, it does move, is something different. But its as near to objective truth as you can get. 'Whereas, when you say you feel something, and I say I don't, is there really any objective effect? Richard: But if I feel an effect, and you take the source of that effect away with out my knowledge, and I say that it has and an AZ map of London don't anybody tell me it's inaccurate, subjective or not! Paul: It’s strange: when you're using a pendulum, and you know j(s working, and going to give the right answers, I, for one, get exactly the same feeling in the back of the head, exactly the same as on a ley. My first experience of my psychic abilities was in the old train spotting days. I used to stand there, watching an A3 come up, and say "60072 Suns tar", and it would be. . And I got this off to a fine art, in the end. Suddenly I just knew I could do it Stood at Darlington station, and a train was coming in. I said 'It's 1103' and in came. Someone said 'How did you know that? Are there just three of them or something?' And I said 'No, there's 536 of them!' Pretty good going. I just don't know how you do that I just know exactly, on the occasions I can do it, and when I do, I'm always right Chris: What we need is a research budget of 100 million or so! Richard: Changing the subject somewhat: one thing about this field that I UC11: page 67

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think is encouraging is the openmindedness of the authorities involved. Unlike conventional scientists, they don't mind being proved wrong now and again. Even with someone like Velikovsky, it's only the straight scientists who shout "rubbish" loudly people on our side of the fence just say "well, I think he's got his time scales wrong", or whatever; we don't seem to suffer suffer from so many "scientists of unreason" as straight science does. Someone should write something about narrowminded scientists; call it something like "Scientists in Collision" ... Paul: I must admit that the only bit of Velikovsky which did get me wondering was the question of why Man discovered bronze, an alloy, before iron. Is it really odd or is it just my imagination? Richard: Just out of interest, how do you regard the "occult" version of the history of Man? Things like Atlantis, for instance. Paul: I think this is one of those frightening subjects, like the ancient astronaut theory; I think Atlantis is basically an archetype; a state of mind, there's so many different theories. But, like the ancient astronaut theory, whilst I don't believe it, I'd hate to be on a platform arguing against Richard: Talking of spacemen, I've always found it interesting the change in outlook that many writers undergo when they've been in close contact with flying saucer and allied material. For instance, Arthur Shuttle wood changed his 'spiritual' outlook drastically between the journalistic Warminster Mystery and the more philosophical UFOs and the New Age. Again, this is where like your book because it covers more than the purely physical aspects of leyhunting. Paul: It's interesting that none of the reviewers have seemed to want to say anything about them: they were perhaps nonplussed by it ... At this point the discussion became very metaphysical. We talked about our beliefs, the New Age, the occult, mysticism enough to fill a whole string of articles. We spoke of how we got involved in these and many other things; we told tales of time past, of time to come, and tales of no time at all. We finally left in the early hours, and crept Southward. The homeward discus.sion returned to more normal themes; strategies for the abolition of nuclear power, politics, and so on. Bit by bit, we came back down to earth perhaps a more familiar earth and back to reality. But what is reality? Richard Elen UC11: page 68

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Quicksilver Heritage by Paul Screeton: Thorsons Publishers 314 pp. £4.50 Reading List Except where otherwise indicated, these books are all published in hardback (hb) by Garnstone Press and in paperback (pb) by Abacus. Alfred Watkins The Old Straight Track (1926), hb £3.75; pb £ 1.25. A classic. The original statement of the Ley hypothesis. John Michell: Flying Saucer Vision hb n.a. pb £0.60 View over Atlantis hb £3.95 pb £0.75 City of Revelation hb £2.90 pb £0.50 Old Stones of Land's End hb £4.25 (no pb). Michell is the leading modern authority on Leys and related phenomena. View Over Atlantis is the key book as it defines the field. Old Stones of Land's End is a description of the leys connecting the old standing stones in that area. It also contains a long essay setting out Michell', current views. It is a pity that because of its price, this essay is rather inaccessible. T. C. Lethbridge: Gog Magog: The buried gods Ghost and Ghoul £1.50 Witches :Investigating an Ancient Religion Ghost and divining rod ESP: Beyond time and distance A Step in the Dark £2.00 The Monkey's tail £1.50 The Legend of the Sons of God £1.75 pb £0.30 These eight books (all but one published by Routledge and Kegan Paul) are a record of the research carried out by Tom Lethbridge during the twelve years before his death in 1972. He was not interested in Ieys per se but in a whole range of problems which have some bearing on them: ancient hill figures,ghosts, witches, dowsing, E.S.P., and divining by use of a pendulum. His last book covered the same field as Von Daniken's notorious Chariot of the Gods but much more intelligently and modestly. I recommend it as an introduction to his work which deserves to be better UC11: page 69

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known. It is a pity that Routledge have not seen fit to bring out his other books (except Ghost and Ghoul) in paperback. However most public libraries have copies of them. Any 'freak scientist' looking for a research programme should start here. Guy Underwood The Pattern of the Past (£1.50 Museum Press) pb £0.50. Not about leys. This book summarises the results of many years spent in the investigation of ancient sites by dowsing. Another classic. Katherine Maltwood Glastonbury's Temple of the Stars, £ 1.25. James Clarke and Co. (no pb). A detailed description of the Glastonbury Zodiac. The Ley Hunter. Edited and published by Paul Screeton, 5 Egton Drive, Seaton Carew. Hartlepool Cleveland TS 25 2 AT. Bimonthly 25p. Subscription £1.50 p.a. It is also stocked by three London bookshops: Atlantis, 49a Museum St. W.c.I., Compendium, 290 Camden High Street, NWI. and Dark They Were, 10 Berwick St. W.I. Quicksilver Heritage contains two bibliographies on ley hunting and related topics, one of six pages listing books and one of fourteen pages listing articles. Chris HuttonSquire The crypt of Lastingham church Lastingham is near Pickering, North Yorkshire. Grid reference SE 728904. The Hart Stone lies in the churchyard at Hart, Cleveland. Grid reference NZ 471352.

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P. 21 Hutton-Squire How Straight is the Old Straight Track? “Look before thee, dost thou see this narrow way ... it is as straight as a rule can make it. This is the way thou must go” Pilgrim's Progress

JUST HOW STRAIGHT is straight? Leys are supposed to be straight lines connecting ancient sites. In principle, therefore, it would seem easy enough to test the ley hypothesis by plotting the coordinates of the sites on graph paper to see if they line up. But what do we mean by a straight line? Not Euclid's definition, 'the shortest distance between two points'. The Earth is a sphere, so we should use the spherical equivalent and check that the latitude and longitude of the points all lie on the same great circle. We don't, of course. Accurate estimates of latitude and longitude of obscure stone circles are not readily available. There is a second best alternative, however. The National Grid enables us to fix cartesian (i.e. x. y) coordinates for any point in Britain. So at a preliminary test of the ley hypothesis we can plot the grid references of points on a hypothetical ley to see if they lie on an Euclidean straight line. If anyone knows how to convert grid references to spherical coordinates I would be glad to hear from them. The trouble is, sufficiently accurate grid references are not easy to come by either. The conventional six figure grid reference (such as those given in Janet and Colin Bord's book Mysterious Britain) defines an area 100 metres square. To improve on this, small scale maps are needed (1 : 10,000 or about 6" to 1 mile) and these are expensive so little of this verification work has been done. However John Michell, in his most recent book The Old Stones of Land's End does give eightfigure grid references for all the stones and crosses he describes. These define an area 10 metres square still too large, but as good as we're likely to get without a lot of field work. There are a number of ways of using these figures. I have adopted the easiest method: I have fitted a line to two points exactly and checked the other points against it. There is only space to quote one example: the five point ley connecting Boscawenun (point 1 on the map) and Tresvennock Pillar (point 3). (I am using Michell's numbers for the sites.) To test the ley I have used these two points to calculate the line. Then taking the 'Easting' (x coordinate) of each of the three other sites as given, I used the line to UC11: page 71

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estimate a 'Northing' (y coordinate) for it. These I have compared with the actual Northings given by Michell. (This is very much an account of work in progress. More subtle tests could easily be devised, using, for example, linear regression, but they would mean a bit of work for someone. Anyone got a computer? All three points are out of line, but only by 0.01 km. i.e. 10 metres. So far I have only checked two other three point leys on this map. Both give the same error. How serious is this deviation? The answer is, we don't know. There is no theory of leys, so there is no reason why we shouldn't make them as wide as we like. 'Obviously the wider they are the easier it will be to fit points to them. By using eightfigure grid references, we are tacitly allowing our leys to be 10 metres wide anyway. These figures seem to show that a 10 metre width is not enough: we need 20, i.e.. 22 yards, the length of a cricket pitch. Surely this cannot be coincidence?) A straight strip 20 metres wide runs through all five grid references. As the five points are on average 1 km. apart this means that the direction of the line joining each pair diverges from the average by up to 0.5". Whether we still call it a straight line or not is up to us. This is less impressive (perhaps) than Watkins' repeated insistence that leys must be exact, but at least it is a hard fact A few more facts like this and we would be on our way to turning ley hunting into a science. After fifty years, it's about time. Chris Hutton Squire This map shows the principal alignments (ley) connecting the surviving megalithic stone monuments and ancient stone crosses in the southern part of the Land's End peninsula in Cornwall. For clarity, alignments to points off the map have been omitted, as have two stones for which no alignments been found. (Source: The Old Stones of Land's End by John Michell. Scale: the map is divided into kilometre squares.) ActUal Calculated Error (km) Site No Site Name Easting Northing Northing (Michell) (see map) (x coordinate) (y coordinate) 5 Stones West 40.31 27_19 27_18 0.01 4 of Higher Leap Fm 40.41 27.21 27.20 0.01 I' Boscawen Circle 41.18 27.34 A Cross 42.81 27_64 27.63 0_01 3' Tresvennack Pillars 44.18 27.88 , These two points were used to fit the line

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Pages 22-24 Taylor As Below So Above IN Undercurrents 8, Colin Taylor described how some traditional techniques for building with rammed subsoil are now being revived. He now describes a more modern variation of these techniques, which involves compressing the earth into individual blocks, rather than ramming it between shutters to make a monolithic wall. London Brick Company, beware! Do it yourself home builders may soon be squeezing their own . .

RAMMING AN earth wall between shuttering can be hard, soul destroying work, particularly if you are working on your own, digging, preparing, and pounding literally ton, of ,oil to form a few square feet of walling. Good ramming soils, though, contain a fairly high percentage of pebbles, which makes them virtually impossible to press machine made blocks from. Rammed earth, however, is an ideal solution where a large number of people with a small amount of expertise set out to quickly erect a good quality, low cost dwelling maybe as a cooperative. The main advantage to the owner builder in using earth blocks is that the work can be spread over a long period of time (say, over weekends) and the blocks stored away for later use. Earth is easier to handle in block form and there are not the same restrictions on the building's shape which the use of shuttering for rammed earth wall, present'. The block, are allowed to dry and cure before they are built into a wall, which reduces shrinkage cracking to a minimum. Good rammed earth can only be built with a limited range of sandy soil but there are few clayey soils than cannot be used in puddled form that is, mixed with a sufficient quantity of water (1620%) to distribute particles uniformly throughout the material, creating a homogenous mass of graded particles. Sundried puddled earth block, were one of man's oldest building materials in low rainfall areas of the world, but it may surprise some people to' find that the technique was also used in parts of Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and particularly Norfolk where it was known a, 'Clay Lump'. Puddled earth block building, were 'till being built in part' of Norfolk, (particularly the villages of Harling, Watton, and Shipham) into the 1920'" and probably in some farm building, after that. Clay Lump was probably the best of the traditional Earth Wall techniques in Britain. Generally, these were puddled monolithic techniques, the best known being Devonian Cob and Wiltshire Chalk Mud ('Clunch'). The UC11: page 73

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precise makeup of the soil mix varied with locality as adjustments were made to suit the local soil condition" but all these puddled techniques were based on a chalky or clayey mud mixed with straw. The simple improvement of moulding this mixture into blocks produced vastly more successful building,. The subsoil was dug up, placed into a heap, and barley straw (heather and other fibrous materials were used) was scattered on while the mixture was trodden together, heap being continuously turned with fork,. The quantity of straw to be added depend, on the amount of clay in the soil; the higher the clay content the more is required, although a maximum of 20% by volume i, generally recommended. Enough water is added to bring the soil/straw mixture to a doughy consistency and it is then shovelled into bottomless timber mould, laid on the ground, well kneaded into the corners. A straightedged piece of timber dipped in water is used to smooth the top of the block. It is important to choose a shaded site to prevent the block, drying out too quickly. The mould, are removed as soon as the mud is stiff enough to retain it, shape and the block, are left to dry and cure, protected from the rain, for two to three week,. Generally, the longer the blocks are allowed to cure the stronger and more durable the finished wall, will be. Clay Lump (or Adobe as it is usually known) can be moulded in many shapes and sizes, but the most common are rectangular. Common sizes of Clay Lump, were 18in x 9in x 9in; 18in x 9in x 6in; and 18in x 6in x 6in The external walls to dwelling, are generally 9in thick, with 6 in wall, used internally for outbuilding' Multiblock mould, to produce four or even more block, at a time should be lined with metal for easy block removal. The block, are laid in the same way as conventional brickwork, bedded in a ,oft mortar of lime and clay or the soil used to make the block" mixed with ,and. They are wetted slightly to prevent excessive absorption of moisture from the mortar and ensure good bonding. In Norfolk, Clay Lump wall, were sometimes finished with two to three coats of coal tar, after the walls were stopped up and smeared with a wash of clay. Sand was thrown over the last coat of tar before it was quite dry and the surface painted with I lime or colour wash. An alternative is to give the walls a good lime 'rough cast' rendering. This consists of a 3/4in undercoat of lime and ,and with a top coat of crushed aggregate, ,slaked lime and sand. Rendering will always require maintenance and it is difficult to apply to 'mud' (puddled) wall,. To get UC11: page 74

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over this problem, the rendering can be reinforced with chicken wire stretched over the wall surface, or the rendering can be mixed with some fibrous material such as horse hair. Stabilizers, with the exception of bituminous emulsions and to some extent lime, are not generally effective for puddled mixtures Stabilizing agents are substances mixed with the sailor applied to the finished walls, which either improve the soils resistance to moisture, or increase its strength, or even both. Some stabilizers, such as bituminous emulsions, reduce the initial strength of the finished wall. while increasing its water resistance, as the bitumen acts as a lubricant to the soil particles until it completely sets a few months later. Bitumen emulsions consist of about 55% bitumen, 43 to 44% water, and 1 2% emulsifying agent; the water is released with exposure to the air, leaving a bituminous bond. Solutions can be 'early' or 'late' breaking, the action of the latter being retarded to allow time for mixing before the moisture is released. The amount of emulsion added depends on the proportion of sand in the soil: 4 6% for soils with over 50% sand; 7 12% for 5()oJ, sand; and 13 20% for under 50% sand. Lime can be used for soils with high clay content but cement is not generally effective for puddled block making. . The compressive strength of puddled Blocks can be anything up to 400lbs/in2 (the minimum required for walling materials under Building Regulations outside London in London the minimum is l000Ibs/in2). But if the blocks are pressed or rammed, their strength will generally be between 400lbs/in2 and l000Ibs/in2. (Pressed blocks are also generally more durable than Adobe, but soil unsuitable for pressed blocks can probably still be used for puddled blocks with very simple equipment) Simple machines have been developed for this purpose. They exert extremely high pressure, compressing the soil particles tightly together. Hand operated machines such as Cinva and Landcrete presses apply between 200 500lbs/in2, and the manufacturers of the Elison (hand operated) Universal Brick Press claim over 1 1000 Ibs/in2 compaction pressure. (see illustrations). When soil is compacted and increasing proportions of water are added, the unit weight (dry density) of the soil increases. Eventually a point is reached where the unit weight goes down. This point is known as the 'Optimum moisture content', where maximum density is obtained. Blocks pressed with moisture content, 7 to 1 ()OJ, water by weight for UC11: page 75

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light sandy soils and 14 to 16% for clayey soils, will be extremely durable. Cement is the most common stabilizer for pressed blocks as it generally yields much higher strengths than other stabilizers. It is most effective for soils with high sand content. Cement forms a rigid skeleton without chemical reaction from the soil, and is mixed to the dry soil before water is added. The soil/cement mixture will begin to harden after 10 15 minutes and if not used with in this time will have to be thrown away. Most of the strength of soil/cement is attained after 7 days and the blocks should be kept moist for at least this long, covered with polythene; the longer soilcement blocks are kept moist after production the stronger they will be. A series of test blocks should be made to see how little cement you need to use (5% is usual for blocks), although generally the higher the compaction pressure exerted by the machine the smaller the percentage of stabilizer required. By altering the size and shape of the moulds in the machine, it is possible to produce a wide range of soil! cement materials such as 'U' shaped precast lintel sections and floor tiles. Lime Most stabilizers, including cement, are difficult to mix with heavy clay soils, but additions of lime will make such soils more workable and generally prove more effective than cement. Lime is increasingly effective with increasing clay content as it reacts with aluminates and silicates in the clay portion of the soil, producing a chemical bond 'pozzolanic' reaction). Reactions of lime are slow and it takes much longer than cement to harden; lime/soil mixtures take six times longer than soil/ cement to attain full strength, a point to remember when comparing lime and cement. The Lime (slaked or unslaked) is mixed with dry soil and enough water added to dampen the entire mixture. It is then covered for a day or two, keeping the mixture moist. Soil lime blocks should be kept moist for at least seven days, (14 days if possible) and stored in the shade for another seven days before being exposed to the sun. Curing at high temperatures produces marked increases in strength so the blocks should be made in warm weather. There is a limit to the strength obtainable with soil/lime mixtures unlike soil/ cement, where additions of cement produce corresponding increases in strength. The chemical reaction may be increased by the addition of flyash, the dust given off during the burning UC11: page 76

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of coal, coke, Iignite and some other solid fuels. Flyash mixed with lime can produce a cheap stabilizer as good as cement, for both sandy and clayey soils. Lime and Cement mixture can be very useful for soil containing a little too much clay for cement to be very effective. Lime will make it more workable, but does not react enough to waterproof or increase its compressive' strength. Usually equal parts of lime and cement are sued, the lime The Elison Universal Brick Press (made in South Africa: not to be operated by whites) always being added first following the procedure for soil/lime mixes. The cement is . added after 1 . 2 days standing time with the addition of an amount of water to obtain the required moisture content. The blocks are cured in the same way as soil/ cement. Other solutions such as resins, waste products (sump oil, moll asses, latex) and waterproofing chemical solutions (sodium silicate, sodium chloride, calcium chloride) have been used with limited success, but they require much more study before their behaviour can be fully assessed. The only way to gain real knowledge about these materials is to try them and see what results you get. All earth walls, including block walls, should be built upon basewalls to keep them clear of splashing rain and protect from rising damp. Usually these walls are built in burnt brickwork, concrete, or stone, but soil with 12% stabiliser has been used in low rainfall areas. On well drained sites the soil/cement is rammed against the sides of the trench of a bed of cyclopean concrete (large stones embedded in concrete). In Britain, though, these basewalls would remain almost permanently damp and soil/cement might not stand up to frost attack; but they have not yet been tried in this country. Various treatments have been used to form a barrier to rising damp, but conventional damp proof courses will probably give the best results. There is no doubt that soil can satisfy present domestic scale structural requirements (Building Regulations) which are, in fact, vastly over designed. A wall for a two storey dwelling will rarely be required to support a load over 100 Ibs/in2 let alone 400Ibs/in2. Although earth buildings are noted for their "warm in winter, cool in summer" characteristics solid walls would need to be built to a large thickness to satisfy the insulation standards laid down by the Building Regulations. UC11: page 77

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But the use of blocks enables external walls to be built in cavity form, so increasing their insulation and retaining the properties of heavy mass and thermal storage. Earth has many unique qualities and an enormous potential begging to be exploited. Colin Taylor References CliftonTaylor The Pattern of English Building. Faber and Faber. London 1972. See p.p. 287293. Brief account of English traditional earth building Clay Lump, Cob, Clunch, and Pisede Terre. Wolfskill, Lyle A. Handbook for Building Homes of Earth. Texas Transportation InstitutCollege Station, Texas, U.S.A. Bulletin No.21: E.1463. Can be bought from U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Springfield, V.A.2215I, U.S.A. Sales Reference P.B. 179327. Well simplified Technical Builders Manual with information on inexpensive stabilizers. Dumbleton. M. J. Investigations to assess the Potentialities of Lime for Soil Stabilization in the U.K .. 1962, Road Research Paper No. 64. H.M.S.O. London. Very thorough study of the effect of lime on clay soils in the U.h. Fitzmaurice, R. A Manual of stabilized Soil Construction for Housing. 1958 United Nations Sales No 58 II.N.4. The best and most thorough U.N. manual information on virtually every aspect. (R.I.B.A. Library). Cytryns, S. Soil Construction. Housing Division, Ministry of Labour, Israel, Weizmann, Science Press of Israel, 1957. Documents experimental structures (Paraboli, soilcement vaults) in Israel comprehensive description of the properties of certain soils. Ransom W. H. Soil Stabilization a Review of Principles and Practice 1963, Tropical Building Studies No.5. Department of Science and Industrial Research, Building REsearch Station. H.M.S.O. London. Technical Paper mainly dealing with soil cement.

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Pages 25-30 Ford Wind Power! "HOW can I build a small windmill that's simple and cheap, yet delivers a useful amount of electricity?" It's a question People ask us almost every day of the week. And since no one, at least in this country, appears to have produced a satisfactory answer in the form of a practical DIY design, we decided to do it ourselves, using scrap or recycled parts where possible. In this issue, we start with a short theoretical briefing on wind power, followed by a description of our design and how it's performing so far. Next issue, we'll have another progress report, plus details of the electrics and quite a few other things. Why not come awindmilling with us? Whether you intend to buy a windmill, or want to build one yourself from carefully designed plans, or knock one up from scrap components, a calculation of the potential energy available in the wind at your site is necessary if you are to do justice to your efforts. Wind speed is the main factor in assessing the amount of energy in the wi.nd at a given site, since energy in the wind is proportional to the cube of its speed. The average wind speed in Winter is about 30% greater than in Summer, giving a potential of over twice as much wind power at the time of year when it is most needed. Topography and obstructions will, of course, vary the wind speed at ground level, and may cause turbulence. The amount of power in a given wind is given by the formula P = 0.000057 xV3, per square metre of swept area of the windmill, where P is in kilowatts and V is in mph. However, according to the Betz momentum theory the maximum theoretical amount of energy that can be extracted by a windmill is 16/27 (59.3%) of the original energy. In practice this factor reduces to about 40"10 at the windmill's optimum wind speed or about 30% over its operating range. Data on wind speeds is obtainable from most Meteorological Office stations, but because topography and obstructions at a particular site influence wind speed to such an extent, calculations based on your nearest Met Office data may be misleading. The Met Office Climatological Atlas contains maps of isovents for the British Isles (see fig. 1) from which the mean annual wind speed for a given location can be obtained; however, local modifications may invalidate these figures. UC11: page 79

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Wind velocityduration curves for sites over a wide area of the country are very similar, so the velocityduration curve for any given value of the mean annual wind speed can be drawn fairly accurately. A velocityduration curve shows the number of hours per year during which a wind of a given velocity is blowing, and from it can be calculated the number of kilowatt hours of energy per annum that a given. wind generator can be expected to supply. Where the average mean annual wind speed is low, then a windgenerator with a low rated wind speed will deliver more power than a similar mill with a higher rated wind speed. (Rated speed is simply the wind speed required for the generator to deliver its maximum output). The very strong dependence of power output on wind velocity underlines the importance of site selection. Differences of 5 or 10 mph in average wind velocity are common between sites only a few tens or hundreds of metres apart. The detailed profile of a hill or ridge usually leads to wind velocities much higher in some parts than others. The distance of the hill above ground is also important, sins:e air velocity is reduced near the ground by frictional drag and by interaction with obstacles. There is no general way to pick a site, other than by intuition and observation, followed by onsite wind velocity measurements. Small cup anemometers can be obtained fairly inexpensively, and will enable you to forecast the performance of a generator with greater accuracy. Another means of assessing local wind velocities is by using the Beaufort scale (Fig. 2). If readings are taken regularly (four times a day), and then compared with local Met Office data, the scale provides an accurate and inexpensive way of measuring windspeed. Data should be taken for at least a month (preferably longer) to determine mean average windspeed. Tower design and construction will also influence windgenerator performance. The best location for a windplant is as high as economically possible, in order to reach undisturbed air. Placing a windplant a minimum of 30 40 ft. above the ground will increase the amount of power available to the swept area of the blades. Ideally the plant should be placed at least 15 ft. above all obstacles within a 500 ft. radius, because such obstacles can create turbulence which will decrease performance and cause greater stress on the tower. It is generally not a good idea to mount a windmill on a roof;

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vibration and noise will be disturbing and in high winds the mill could cause structural damage. However, if the generator is small and the mountings are very secure, a roof location can provide a solution perhaps the only one in urban areas. Having determined the potential power available at a certain location and height, the percentage of this power actually delivered to the batteries will depend on the characteristics of the windmill itself. Most windmills are designed to operate within the most common wind velocities 3 to 10 metres per second (6.7 to 22.3 mph). Early windmills and modern multi blade mills have 'high solidity' discs, the area of the blades representing a large proportion of the total swept area. The blades or vanes are basically flat and rely on the angle at which theyare set to produce a torque. They have a high start:ing torque, operate at low wind speeds and have a top speed limited to the speed of the wind. The generation of electricity requires much higher rotational speeds, and so 'low solidity' mills, using aerodynamically shaped blades like aircraft propellors, were developed. The velocity of blades of aerofoil section is not limited to the speed of the wind but can exceed it by up to 10 times. Lowsolidity windgenerators normally use two or three blades with an aerofoil section designed to produce maximum Ii ft with minimum drag in the rpm range within which it operates. These blades operate at a high tip speed ratio (the ratio of blade tip speed to wind velocity), and can thus provide direct generator drive. A higher tip speed ratio means higher rpm for a given wind speed, and higher rpm generally means more power output. (See fig. 3) Figure 4 shows another important characteristic of windgenerators, namely that their power output is proportional to the square of the diameter of the 'propeller' (blades'. In other words, double the size of the propeller, and the power output will increase by a factor of four. Power output is obviously not solely determined by prop diameter and wind velocity. It is also dependent on the rating UC11: page 81

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Blade design must be matched to the type of generator or alternator chosen. Since the prop speed seldom exceeds 300 to 500 rpm, especially in the larger diameters, this calls for a low speed generator designed to match the torque and horsepower output parameters of the prop in use. Dunlite use an alternator which develops maximum output at 750 rpm, corresponding to a prop speed of only 150 rpm; hence a 5:1 gear step up is used. Elektro on the other hand use all direct drive, with the exception of the big 6kw unit which is geared. All major manufacturers are now using a multipoled alternator which produces AC. Conventional alternators are generally designed for high rotational speeds (1800 3600 rpm), and can only be used for windgenerators when a gearing step up of between 6:1 to 18:1 is used. By using direct drive or a very low gearing ratio, losses are kept to a minimum and overall efficiency is high. For the backyard windgenerator builder, the choice between a direct drive, lowspeed, generator/alternator and a geared, highspeed< generator/alternator, is usually determined by what is most available and how much it costs. The Undercurrents/LID windgenerator. "Consider anything you can build yourself from scrap materials that gives you light and power to be alchemic rather than efficient Do it and see, but don't expect to run factories off them". [Bruce Haggert, Street Farmers' Windworkers Manual]. A cheap, simple, selfbuilt windgenerator will not deliver much power, it is true, but is likely to be relatively more costeffective than an offtheshelf windgenerator at current prices. All you need is spare time, a small amount of money, a reasonably equipped workshop and an understanding of how the various components perform, and you can build a windmill that can provide the lighting in your house. Not much, agreed, but good if the CEGB shuts down this winter. Components and construction Car dynamos (12v DC generators) are easily obtainable from scrap yards for about a pound. (Alternators aren't so easy to obtain and will cost UC11: page 82

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about £20 to (30). It's probably best to take the generator out of the car yourself, then you can refer to the manufacturer's manual and find out the generator's rating. Often scrap yards will stack and service generators, selling them in 'guaranteed' working order. However, it's best to check yourself to make sure it's working. The rating is very important. As stated above, propeller speed will seldom exceed 300 500 rpm; now if your generator is designed to give 12v at 900 rpm you either have to gear it (which is complicated and inefficient), or keep the direct drive and modify the generator as we have done, to work at lower speed, which involves rewinding the coils. Propeller design must be related to the windspeed characteristics in your area, and to the rating of the generator. Fig. 6 shows the relationship of power output to rpm for blades of different length. Having determined the rpm range within which the generator will charge the batteries, the most suitable blade length and characteristics can be chosen. Blades can be made from a variety of materials (we used cedar), but it is important that the aerofoil characteristics can be accurately and easily achieved. Fig. 7 shows blade.characteristics for wooden propellers of 6ft. to 10ft. diameter. (From the Lejav manual). Once you have obtained a generator and suitable prop (and assuming you are using direct drive), the next consideration is the construction of the main horizontalaxis support and the tail vane. Back in the scrap yard you will quickly find something to suit your needs: bike frames, angle iron and sheet steel. We used 2 inch mild steel angle about 5ft. long, and found an old CEGB warning sign of sheet steel, just the right size for the tail vane. 'Danger electricity', it read: we felt it was a good omen. Now to mount the generator to the horizontal support. The mountings on a car dynamo vary. but usually they have 3 or 4 mounting rackets. We cut two angle brackets from the main length of angle, and welded them back to the main length so that they could be bolted to the generator mountings. Your local garage will almost certainly do such welding for you for a small charge. The construction of the horizontal sup.port will depend on the turntable mechanism you opt for. The scrap yard full of suitable bearings: bikes, motor bikes, steering wheel columns, rear differentials. We used a car UC11: page 83

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'half shaft', which enabled us to bolt the steel angle support to the half shaft wheel flange. Whatever bearing you choose, make sure it turns freely and isn't missing any ball bearings. The next problem is the tower construction. You can either build a triangulated or single pole tower. A single pole tower will suffice if it is adequately guyed. We chose a single pole tower so that it could be taken down easily for design modification and maintenance. The first one we got was a 30ft larch pole (from Karl, the mad forester from dingley dell). However, we had problems fixing the half shaft to it securely so we decided to mount the mill on a length of standard scaffold tube. But these are hard to get now (the steel shortage, y'know) so we ended up with a 20ft long, 1 1/2 inch diameter galvanised steel water pipe. To enable free rotation, a length of pipe had to be found which would exactly fit onto the halfshaft ball race with patient scavenging we found one! This also acts as a sleeve over the main tower pole, and is bolted to it (see drawings). The base of the tower is secured by a bolt pivot to two lengths of 1/'" x 2" x 4ft. mild steel sunk into the ground. (A concrete footing would be better). Steel wire of 6 mm gauge is attached to a bolt hook located about 2 inches below the pipe sleeve at the top of the tower, and to three 4 ft lengths of steel angle sunk into the ground at an angle of about 45 •. Adjustable 'barrel hooks (standard TV aerial fittings, as are the guy wires and accessories) are used to tighten the guys and to enable adjustment to be made to get the tower vertical. Control Mechanisms Once maximum power is developed at the rated wind speed of the generator (typically in the 16 to 25mph range) excess power developed by the prop is potentially destructive and must be controlled. This is done by a feathering or governing mechanism, of which there are many different types. An 'airbrake' or 'airspoiler' has been used by a number of manufacturers for small diameter machines, and is still used on the 200W Winco 'Windcharger'. Two small sheet metal vanes are placed at 90 to the propeller about the hub axis; springs hold the vanes in this position until centrifugal force pulls the vanes outward, diverting air away from the prop and thus decreasing rpm. However, this system isn't very good for larger mills, since it throws heavy loads onto the entire structure. Quirks (an Australian manufacturer) in the past used a system which was UC11: page 84

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similar in operation to the multiblade Hercules pumping mills made until recently in Britain, and to the system adopted for the Undercurrents windmill. The generator and prop assembly is mounted a short distance off the axis of the supporting tower. The thrust developed on the prop as the wind blows on it pushes the generator assembly around the tower axis. Normally, the tail vane prevents the prop from moving very far out of the wind, but at a predesigned wind speed the tail vane, which is springloaded, swings out, allowing the mill to move much further out of the wind. Another simple method, easily built in a backyard workshop, was adopted by Jim Sencenbaugh for his windgenerator, described in Mother Earth News 20. This uses a 'pilot vane' set parallel to the prop. The arm of the vane is equal in length to the radius of the propeller, and the area exposed to oncoming air helps to push the prop and generator assembly out of the wind. The disadvantage of 'swinging' systems is that they can induce gyroscopic vibration and can reduce the power available at the very time the wind is delivering most power. Modern commercial mills use a more sophisticated feathering principle, which regulates prop rpm by changing the angle of attack of the blades at high wind speeds. This system enables induced power to be held almost constant for wind velocities over a certain design speed, thus allowing continuous power output in high winds without inducing stress. The Swiss Elektro windgenerators, for example, use the centrifugal force which act upon a set of springloaded weights to change blade pitch. The FRench Aerowatt mills use a similar feathering mechanism; but although these generators can cope with winds of up to 80mph, for even more extreme wind conditions a manual brake control is nearly always required in addition. This is also necessary for home made generators. Manual braking systems can be adapted from bicycle and car brake systems, or from a wide range of scrap parts. It is very important that anyone intending to build a windgenerator should make sur that the control mechanisms are well designed. Once you have seen a high speed prop disappear to a blur even in a low wind, you will appreciate that wind power can be destructive and dangerous as well as potentially useful. Brian Ford UC11: page 85

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PROGRESS REPORT SO FAR, the results of our initial trials with the UNDERCURRENTS / LID Windgenerator show that the design is very satisfactory mechanically, and moderately satisfactory electrically. Mechanics first. We balanced the prop statically by poising it on a nail and adding weights small washers countersunk into the wood) until it balanced. After a bit of deft centring on on the dynamo pulley(ovalshaped holes helped) and adjustment of the tracking ( by add.ing.:;washers between prop and pulley), it now whirls remarkably smoothly in the heaviest winds we've had so far this calm summer ( about force 5, "fresh breeze" on the Beaufort scale). The "eccentric axis" governing mechanism does seem to move the prop out of high winds, but we have not been able to test the system in high enough winds to be sure if it is adequate. We're experimenting with various amounts of eccentricity and various strengths of spring in the tail vane. The most promising spring seems to be a pistondamped door closer (with modifications) to iron out any possible oscillations and to give the desired "bistable" effect. The bicycletype braking system consists of an ordinary “side pull caliper brake", made by Radnall and available from Halfords, with the lugs which normally hold the brake shoes sawn down to enable the assembly to fit in the narrow space between prop and dynamobody. So far, the braking torque is small as you'd expect with only metaltometal friction. The next step is to add a brake lining material to the pulley and brake surfaces to increase the frictional braking.; torque. In operation, the idea is that the brake will be applied by catching the wire loop ( see blueprint) with a metal hook on the end of a pole. When the pole is then :pulled down, the brake comes on and is kept on by attaching the other end of the pole to a fixture on the tower. We hope this simple dodge will get round the need for some kind of flexible coupling to transmit t the brake::e cable tension to Ground while still allowing the ll to rotate freely. A similar problem arises with transmitting the electrical power from the dynamo to the Ground while the windmill is turning about following the wind. Most commercial design employ slip rings" which allow the power to be transmitted using the tower itself as conductor. But a number of wind generator builders report that if you simply allow sufficient wire to enable the mill to turn three or four times UC11: page 86

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without tightening it, the wire almost never needs untangling. When it does, it can be done just by having a plug and socket on the tower: unplug the wire, unravel it, and plug it in again. We've had our mill up for some: weeks now, and so far it has only twisted its cable, at most, through one revolution. So we're not worrying about slip rings. We are, however, a little more concerned about the generator. RiGht from the beginning we realised that a car dynamo was going to need some modification if it was to produce an appreciable voltage when turning at the relatively low speeds likely to be attained by even a small, six foot prop. We’ll be going into the electrics in u;ore detail in the next issue, but essentially, the problem is this. A dynamo, basically, consists of a coil or coils of wire (called the "armature") rotating in a magnetic field. The field could be provided by D.D ordinary permanent magnet, but in car dynamos the field is produced by an electromagnet a piece of soft iron with a coil ( called the "fieldll coil) would round it. This produced a magnetic field when energised by an electric current. When the armature rotates, a voltage is "induced" in it, in proportion to: the strength of the field, the number of turns of wire in the armature coil and the speed of rotation. If the dynamo is to charge batteries of, say, 12 volts potential, then it must be producing at least 12 volts at the terminals of the armature coil before current can begin to flow "down hill" into the batteries. But most modern car dynamos don't start to generate 12 volts until their armature coil is rotating atnearly 1,000 rpm, twice us fast as our expected maximum rated propellor speed ( about 500 rpm or so). The coils on the armature of a car dynamo can be rewound with more turns of a thinner wire, so that they give mere voltage at low revs, but although this can be done ( and we'll show how in the next issue) we didn't fancy taking the trouble to do so if it could be avoided. So we tried a different approach. We decided to use our 12 volt dynamo to charge six volt, rather than 12volt, batteries. We reasoned we should get 6 volts at about half the revs needed for 12 volts provided the field stayed the same. To keep the field constant, we connected the field coils in parallel, instead of series: this is a very simple operation, involving only the unsoldering and resoldering of a few wires. UC11: page 87

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Now although we are getting some charge' into our 6v batteries with this system, it isn't as much as we would like. This may be due to a duff battery (more on reviving dead batteries next time, too) but we suspect we're going to have to rewind the armature as well to bet a really good charge in moderate winds. In the next issue, we will also give details of the transistorised invertor, voltage regulator, fluorescent lighting, and other elements of the electrical system. There will also be an annotated bibliography of books, pamphlets and articles on wind power, which had to be left out of this issue for space reasons. Space also prevents us carrying our promised review of the Winco windcharger: next time, it’ll be there. ' Oh, and if you’d like to take a look at the Undercurrents/LIT windgenerator "in the fleshll, we’ll be taking the prototype to COMTEK in August (if it doesn't blow down first).

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Page 31 Boyle Cure For Methane Indigestion? METHANE WAS ONCE the great brown hope of the Alternative Technology movement a member of the revered holy trinity of Sun, Wind and Shit whose "natural, endless, free" power was going to transform all our lives. Early AT prophets Iike Andy MacKillop told us enthusiastically of the achievements of methane pioneers Iike Ram Bux Singh 1 in India, whose Gobar Gas Plants" had sprouted up all over that vast country. generating biogas and fertiliser from the dung of India's millions of cows Optimism increased when, in the middle of 1973, the New Alchemists in the 'States reported encouraging methane yields in their classic newsletter Methane Digesters for Fuel, Gas Fertiliser', in which L. John Fry' also told of the big digester on his South African hog farm which produced a staggering 8,000 cu ft of methane a day. It was a gas: things looked good. It seemed as if all you had to do was take an oil drum, shovel in the shit, seal it up, wait a while, and then connect up your gas cooker. But slowly, gradually, lessencouraging news began to filter through. It was a big blow when Harold Bate, idol of the media and granddaddy of the methane maniacs, turned out to have been running his famous gaspowered Hillman on bottled propane for most of the time, because he wasn't getting enough methane from his chickens. And the digester at the Street Farmers' EcoHouse in South London, though it did turn out some lovely fertilizer, stubbornly refused to generate any methane worth talking about. Things looked bad: a gas it certainly was not. The final nail in the coffin of methane's waning credibility, for most of us, was driven in by Michael Gaisford, who, in a pretty devastating article in Farmer's Weekly' concluded that: "The prospect of producing methane gas from farmyard manure as an economic fuel for cars and tractors is as _clouded with difficulty tOday as it has ever been, despite the energy crisis. OJ Temperature. That's the rub. Even in British summers, temperatures are seldom high enough to reach the 90 F that's ideal for those little anaerobic bugs to do their dirty work efficiently. Two distinct approaches to the problem have been proposed. UC11: page 89

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One is to try to find a variety of anaerobic microorganism that will flourish at lower temperatures: speakers at the Intermediate Technology Development Group's recent symposium on methane in London suggested that a newlybred American "super bug" may do the trick, but it's too early to be confident yet. The other approach is simpler: to insulate the digestion vessel so well that its heating requirements, even in the awful British climate, are low enough not to detract too much from the digester output. This basic approach has been exploited by Bio Gas Plant of Midhurst in Sussex, who this Spring announced two intriguing new digester designs. The company's latest System II and System III digesters are the first smalltomedium scale products of their type which have been produced, as far as I know. The System II digester, priced at £380 basic, has a 500 gallon slurry capacity. Its average gross gas output is reckoned to be about 80 cu ft per day enough, even after allowance for heating the digester, to supply the cooking needs of an average family (about 30 cu ft per day); or enough to heat a small greenhouse. To do this, it needs an input of 25 gallons of water and 20 Ib dry weight of animal manure or vegetation per day. The System III plant is six times the size of the System II. It has a 3,000 gallon capacity, a £1,200 basic price tag and a gross average daily gas output of around 480 cu ft enough for big glasshouses or small communities. What's more,the economics, according to figures supplied by Vic Mitchell, their designer, seem pretty attractive. When used to supply bio gas as a substitute for bottled gas in typical existing glasshouse heating installation, he says, System II pays for itself in 5.4 years One of Mitchell's success secrets lies in his use of a selfsupporting heavyduty butyl rubber bag. instead of a rigid "gasometer", to hold the slurry during digestion. These bags are relatively cheap, require no site work to instal, and can be transported easily. Another vital ingredient is his lavish use of insulation: the butyl rubber bag sits on a 2in bed of polystyrene, and is covered by a 3in thick fibreglass blanket. Supplementary heating. to compensate for those losses that remain, is provided by a gasburning heat exchanger (which costs extra) under the UC11: page 90

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bag. Mitchell has even written a booklet, Bio Gas Today, in which he sets out the basic facts about methane production in a style that is clear, concise( and to the point though he tends perhaps understandably) to concentrate on the products developed by his ow company, and does not even give references when he alludes to the work of others in the field. Undercurrents hopes to make an onthespot assessment of an operating System II or III digester soon. Mitchell tells us that he will be installing one of his digesters at the National Centre for the Development of Alternative Technology at Machynlleth, Wales7: he describes himself as "very much an alternative technologist". But one thing I'm sceptical of is his calculations of the capital recovery time for his digesters. These are based on the price of the basic system and do not include the cost of various accessories which would probably be essential in most circumstances: for instance, an accessory cabinet (£19.50); the tank heater (£64.00); circulating pump (£36.00); return pump (£21); froth trap (£3.75); one gas purifier (£3.75); a gas storage bag (say £75 for a 500 cu ft model) and a viewing window (£10.50). Add all these extras to the basic price of a System II digester and the price climbs to over £600; So it will take a lot longer than 5.4 years for a System II plan t with accessories to pay for itself: more like 7 or 8 years, I'd say. Moreover, Mitchell's assumption that the price of bottled gas (made from oil) will rise at 20 per cent per annum for the next five years may be in line. with OPEC's wishes, but contradicts the expectation of most other prognosticators. But perhaps I'm quibbling. After all, we've been talking only about the value of the gas, and treating the fertiliser value of. the sludge as negligible, when in fact it could be the most important output of all. And even if Mitchell's design doesn't pay for itself as quickly as he claims when the ruthless yardstick of capitalist economics is applied, he deserves full credit for getting together what looks like the first thoroughlypractical, mediumsized, 'offthepeg' bio gas plant that works in Britain. What it would be nice to see now is a simple DoitYourself digester designed along Mitchell's lines (maybe he UC11: page 91

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can be persuaded to let a few trade secrets out of the bag?) aimed at those who would like a source of natural, free fertiliser, need a modest amount of biogas, and don't mind devoting a few hours of work/leisure to loosening a little further the ties that bind them to the energocrats. Godfrey Boyle References. 1. See: BioGas Plant: Generating, Methane (from Organic Waste. by Ram BUll: Singh. Available from Gobar Gas Research Station, Aiitmal. Etawah (U.P.) India. price about n.w. 2. Available from the New Alchemy lnstitute West. Box 376, Pescadero, Calif. 94060, USA Price '3.00. 3. See also Fry'. recent book. Methane Power Plant&. I can't find the address since .someone has nicked the Undercurrents"," review copy, but Bio Gas Plant will sell you one for .£4.00 plus. 20p P" P. 4. "Muck Power" by Michael Gaisford. Farmer,.. Weekly, May 31, 1974. 5. ITDG, Parnell House, Wilton Road. London SWI. 6. Bio Gas Plant, Eastbourne Lane, Midhurst. Sussex GU 29 9AZ. Phone Midhurst 3913 " 3169 7. National Centre for the Development of Alter. native technology, Llynlwern Quarry, &. MachYnlleth, Powys .. Wale&.

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Pages 32-36 Harper The House That Jaap Built SELF SUFFICIENCY, that meretricious concept/tendency/archetype/ slogan made rich and famous by inflation and the ecology movement, has had no more spectacular offspring than the "autonomous house", a zoo/lab/womb of gadgets, arrangements and procedures aiming at independence, which when it looks in the mirror see!; a tiny perfect ecosystem sucking only at the legit tits of the biosphere. How's that for a ridiculous opening paragraph 1 It gets you that way, writing about this stuff. It's hard to keep it simple. There are so many variables to keep track of. But to start at the beginning, this article is about an autonomous system recently built near Eindhoven in Holland. .!! It's part of a project well known over there, : called De Kleine Aarde the Small Earth which runs an experimental farm devoted to experiments in alternative husbandry dry, technology and lifestyles. Its founder, ;S Sietz Leeflang, is the editor of De Kleine ;; Aarde, the (excellent) Dutch equivalent of Undercurrents (MunseI17, Boxtel, N.B., the Netherlands). The autonomous house project was conceived, designed and built (with a little help from his friends) by Jaap t'Hooft, a Dutch engineer, who is now living in it. The general aim of autonomous houses is to reduce dependency on external sources of supply such as water, sewerage, electricity, gas, fuels, and food. Of course, it's not that easy or we would all have done it years ago. It's simple enough to put up a solar water heater to save fuel, or grow vegetables to save food bills. These won't unduly disturb the patterns of your house structure, lifestyle or expenditure although you must be alert about duplicating capital costs, paying once for the alternative" subsystem and again for the conventional means to fill the remaining gap between supply and demand. But trying for full autonomy requires much more profound reorientation. It amounts to "filling the gap" by additional alternative systems, and this can be even more expensive than doing it conventionally. But what is this gap? There's the rub. High autonomy and high demand, i.e. UC11: page 93

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suburban" standards of amenity/comfort/ convenience/reliability/ performance (no single word will quite do) can cost a fortune. The alternative is to reduce demand, forget about backup systems and suburban standards and make the best of whatever the structure, the weather and the social side,effects might dole out In other words, it is very difficult to create a dwelling which is highly autonomous, and cheap, and effective (in the sense of bourgeois amenities). But this is just what Jaap t'Hooft seems to have achieved, and it is part of the purpose of this article to see how. Jaap's design is a compromise. Although in principle there should be an indefinite series of continuous tradeoffs in optimising design amongthe factors of of autonomy, cost and amenity, it hasn't worked out this way in practice. Presumably owing to the assumptions of, and constraints on, the practitioners, two basic approaches have dominated. In the red corner, as it were are those whom Alex Pike head of Cambridge University's Architecture Department, styles enthusiasts" impoverished architecture students, spartan utopians, technicallyinclined ecofreaks, and the like. They tend to assume low and variable standards of amenity; a low cost ceiling; and a gradual evolution from partial to more complete autonomy as the house is lived in. Standards of construction tend to be rough and ready, and maximum use is made of local, on site or recycled materials, or of existing buildings. Considerable onsite work is used in construction, and much is required in maintenance. In consequence, such dwellings tend to be culturally unacceptable to the person in the street. In the blue corner, we have those (let us call them academicsn) blessed with the skills of grantsmanship, and proceeding from a firm foundation in the sands of theory, whose assumed amenity standards are high and fixed. Cost is a relatively un important factor. Highgrade industrial materials are employed and construction is "proprofessional", directed towards a finished design with a high degree of autonomy. Such houses are nothing if not suave and comfortable, and indeed may be economical to run, but the requirement for guaranteeing reliable "suburban" performance and foolproof operation (realistically enough 1) makes it necessary to provide large storage capacities or overdesign various components relative to average demand. So they end up being financially UC11: page 94

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unacceptable to the person in the street. Such unacceptabilities may soften as time goes on. Austere standards of living or different lifestyles may come to be tolerated or even sought as positive goods. Governments or local authorities may find it rational to achieve longterm savings of

scarce imports by subsidising capital costs of autonomous units. As research proceeds technical ways are found to increase efficiency and/or reduce costs. This is as it should be, and is one of the main objects of the academicsH• But in the meantime, we must continue to explore the middle ground between the extremes just described, as it exists now. What are the most likely compromises? Jaap's basic approach has been to make the best of the inevitable conflicts by choosing compromise points particularly appropriate to the conditions under which he is designing. (In doing this he encounters another conflict: such particular solutions are less generalisable to other situations. Nevertheless, many of the design choices represent standard patterns which have to be explored sooner or later). He has tried to design subsystems appropriate to: the occupant/s tastes, preferences, tolerances and skills; the climate; the site special topographical features etc; other parts of the total system; availability of materials etc. from the local environment. Using these details as a guide he has tried to reduce initial costs by various means: these include the usual moreorless universal technical tricks of the autonomous house racket (e.g. graded water purification); selective autonomy (no food growing _ there's plenty outside on the farm); redistribution of costs, from money costs to amenity costs', and from capital costs to running costs (e.g. selfbuilding and selfmaintaining appropriate to the user because he likes being involved with the house and knows how it works). This last category is the most important in jaap's strategy, as will be clearer later. But let me get on to describing the house. The climate is somewhat like that of southern England, probably with more sunshine hours and a colder winter. There is plenty UC11: page 95

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of space on the site. At the outset, Jaap had a small grant, various industrial materials at concessionary rates, and a pumping windmill on a tower. The project started basically within the academic" framework. It was not just a house to live in, but an ,experiment to learn from. and performance was monitored from the beginning. The calculations and the design evolved systematically, specifying, on the whole, standard industrial components and materials. Full autonomy was assumed in water supply, waste treatment, electricity, waterheating, cooking gas and space heating. Standard of insulation was high. An interseasonal heatstore, two weeks electricity store, and a very large, carefully constructed methane digester was designed. Such specifications suggest a high cost, but Jaap has got round this by a crucial sacrifice: scale. He saves costs all round by reducing space standards inside the house, and building a very compact igloo of just …. TECHNICAL DETAILS Structure Dimensions: Floor area 28 m 2 2 Surface area m Volume 75 m Foundation: Cylindrical concrete slab on sandy subsoil. 6.5 m diameter, 18 cm thick. 6 m diameter. Dome: Frame: 5/8 geodesic, 3fold icosahedron. Triangles welded from 8mm reinforcing rods, filled in with wire mesh. Covering: 2 cm mortar "'<" 15 cm cork: cement, 8:1 by volume 5 cm concrete reinforced with wire mats and chicken wire 2 WIndows: Area 2 m ,2.5% of surface area. 7 triangular, of which 3 are openable, with awnings. Construction “DIY thermoglass", 3 panes spaced 1 cm apart. Door: Wood, insulated with polystyrene foam, sunken, leading into lobby. Internal layout: Open except for lobby and bathroom. Pipe runs (except for radiators) all in bathroom/kitchen area. Heat store under floor. Fixed, raised bed with bench and table beneath. Fixed work table by south windows. Water Supply and Waste Disposal UC11: page 96

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Source of water: roof, stored in external settling tank, handpumped to 100 litre header tank. Drinking/Cooking: 4/5 litres/day via sand filter, waste to waste water tank. Wash/Shower: water direct from header, waste to waste water tank under bathroom. Flushing: water handpumped from wastewater tank, waste to septic tank under bath room, with external outlet. Space heating Design temperature: 18° C day, 15° C night. Sources: Collector, body heat, waste heat from cooking, lamps etc. o • Collector: Nonintegrated, southfacing, 60 slope. Closed, indirect system; array of 20 x 1m panel radiators coupled in parallel. Polished on back, lampsblacked on front, doubleglazed with greenhouse glass. Water circulated by 90W pump, conducted to house via insulated buried pipes. Heat store: 15 m3bY sensible heat. Brick and concrete insulated with polystyrene foam, under floor. Heat capacity between 60 C and 32: 1.7 x 103 MJ. Distribution: 2 radiators, indirect from store. Cooking and hot water Heat source: Biogas from digestor. There seems to be no provision for hot water from the solar collector. Appliances: Geyser in bathroom; gas rings in kitchenette. Demand: I 2m2/day. Digestor: Construction: Concrete foundation 18cm thick? chamber a double cylinder of brick 2.5 m high and 1.6 m internal diameter, lined with mortar and pitch and insulated with glass fibre. Volume 3m3• Roof with waterlock inspection hatch and ports for stirrer, sluice pole and vent. Separate hatches for loading; waste liquid; and spent slurry, heating coil and gas outlet. Input and output pipes of asbestos cement. Gasholder: UC11: page 97

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Plasticised canvas inflatable, capacity 4m3• Operation: Fed with pig slurry from nearby farm, and vegetable waste from house and farm. Output 0.5 6.0m3 a day depending on temperature. Up to 20% of the gas will be required to maintain the temperature. Electricity Requirement: 220 Amperehours a week; lighting (halogen Lamp), pump, small appliances. Generator:Car generator driven by gearedup pumping windmill. Tower 7m high, separate from house. Charging starts at windspeeds of 4m/sec and 500W are generated at 9m/sec. Storage: Lead acid batteries, total capacity 600 Ah at 24V, under floor. …. 28 m2floor area. Now this is certainly a reduction of amenity, and furthermore the window area i, less than 3% of the ,surface. Such a ,sacrifice of light and 'pace seem, a rather harsh price to pay. But its advantage, are considerable in reducing cost (materials, collector, heatstore, lighting demand) and Jaap has taken a number of steps to alleviate the poky aspect of the interior. The 'pace is entirely open except for the bathroom and lobby (it is, I suppose, the world's first autonomous bedsitter). He has raised the bed so it takes up no floor space, and sited the windows for maxim um effect: one on the east at the head of the bed; two on the south by the work table; one on the west by the kitchenette; others high and low to reduce monotony. The triangular shape of the windows, he thinks. is important, as is the general shape of the house. He gave three reasons in favour of the domeform: that it does feel more spacious and i, good for your head Ian old hippie myth; I wouldn't know; that it symbolises open, fresh nonrectilinear thinking; and that it is the optimum form for conserving heat. This la,t is undoubtedly true, and having settled so firmly on the igloo shape (or bolvorm" as it's called in Dutch charming word, don't you think?) as well as having a readymade windmill with tower on hand and plenty of 'pace, it was hardly rational to pursue the normal strategy of saving costs by integrating the collector and wind generator into the structure .. This is frequently done in autonomous houses to save ground space and achieve doubleuse' of components, e.g., a collector can double as a roof or wall, UC11: page 98

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and the house itself can replace the windmill tower. Such integration does constrain the design of the building. An integrated collector, for instance, demands, in the immortal words of Robert Vale, a "long. low, flat, southfacing" structure. Nonintegration leaves all the structures to do their own thing (e+ optimum slope and azimuth for collector) and avoids certain yet unsolved problems, such as vibration from an integrated wind generator. The compact design also rules out producing food in the house, although considering it is surrounded by a dozen busy experiments in intensive horticulture, this might not be considered crippling. (It is worth noticing, however, that integrated greenhouses can have a number of useful functions: trapping solar radiation; growing exotics for tasty winter meals; providing a cheap extension of the house space; reducing the need for ventilation, which loses heat by absorbing carbon dioxide and giving out oxygen). So the house does not pretend to autonomy in food, although on the ground covered by its rather scattered subsystems, it obviously could be. Another respect in which it falls short of total autonomy in running supplies, is in its need for manure for the methane digestor. This comes from the neighbouring farmer's hogs. Another way in which Jaap has reduced costs is by selfbuilding most of the structure and components: the frame, the foundations, the plumbing and wiring. most of the fittings, the solar collector, the methane digestor even the tripleglazed windows: Jaap's brother got the knack while working in a thermoglass factory. Most of this was possible because they had the skills and the time, which most people believe they haven't. Selfmaintenance also reduces costs, because you don't have to buildin elaborate automatic foolproof monitoring and correction devices. In this case, maintenance" means charging and discharging the digestor, handpumping and monitoring water supplies, looking after the windmill, batteries, collector and heatstore, and generally pursuing a vigilant and careful lifestyle (only as far as the technology is concerned, naturally!). It is interesting to compare the house with others. On the enthusiast" side, Graham Caine's Street Farm House was al,o selfbuilt, but rougher and readier. It wasn't terribly big but it felt very airy and spacious. It was semiautonomous in space heat, waterheat, watersupply, waste disposal and food. It was often erratic in performance, and cost about £500 a head. On UC11: page 99

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the "academic" side, Alexander Pike's Cambridge design aims at virtually complete autonomy in heating, cooking, electricity, waste treatment and water supply, and partial autonomy in food. Space is adjustable by insulated shutters, giving a generally roomy sensation. It should be comfortable and reliable. Costs are un known, but probably up to £5,000 a head. These two are the rags and riches versions of a basic, compact but open, semiglasshouse form. In stark contrast, Robert Reines' house in the uplands of New Mexico, is remarkably similar to Jaap's, and possibly easier to construct. The solar collectors and wind generator are separate from the house, and provide all space and water heat and electricity needs, with 7day stores and no backup systems. There is no methane: butane is used instead. There is no attempt to grow food. The floor area is about twice the size of Jaap's, and demand levels are generally higher. The total cost is about £2500 per head, which is about what Jaap's costs if there is only one occupant (he expects two). Considering Reines' house is in an ideal solar area, the costs compare very well. What Jaap has focussed on is lowering costs by the systematic sacrifice of various amenity" factors that he thinks can be alleviated in various indirect ways, or that are not so bad as you think, or that are particularly appropriate to the intended inhabitants of the house, Nevertheless the general level of comfort in his house is adequate. We need more such explorations in the noperson's land between the plute brutes and the hardy hippies. Project De Kleine Aarde : Munsel 17 Boxtel NB, the Netherlands. • STOP PRESS. Some late news from Jaap 't Hooft: I moved into the house on Sunday 2nd of March and had some friends round to help and celebrate. The next day the Boxtel Fire Brigade filled the basement with 15 cubic meters of water, while national TV was watching. That same night we had to empty the basement again because there was a leak in it, where the pipes from the solar collector enter the basement. I am making some special flanges to fix this, and meanwhile we have to wait UC11: page 100

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for the insulation to dry out. In February we did some measurements on the solar collector on sunny days and it reached temperatures of 37 C. The windmill has been operating quite satisfactorily during the Winter except for short periods of low wind when the batteries became completely empty. The battery capacity is only,l;200 amperehours at the moment but will be made up to 600 Ah in the future. The methane generator has been producing gas all winter up to three weeks ago, but we couldn't capture it as there was a leak in the manhole cover. We have stopped the digestion process at the moment, and are waiting for better weather before we seal the manhole. The water system is partly finished. I can wash my hands and flush the toilet. We have been testing the heat demand of the house by_ ordinary mains electricity. It takes about 500 W to 1 ,OOOW, depending on outside temperature, which is a little short of the calculated figures. Living in the house is nice. Greetings, Jaap.

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37-38 Hutton-Squire Mind Expansion: Ripoff Or Revelation? "If only two per cent of the people of the world would take up Transcendental Meditation” so says the Maharishi, “ .. all our problems could be solved", It is easy to be cynical about such extravagant claims, but such a reaction may not always be justified. Most accounts of TM, Silva Mind Control, Psycho cybernetics, Arica Open Path and similar techniques are written either by enthusiastic converts or by jaded sceptics. So it is hard to get a balanced view of what is being offered. My own opinion is that the Buddhists are right: the claims made for a particular course or method or guru should not be taken too seriously. In particular, guru hunting is a waste of time. It is born out of laziness and conceit and leads only to disappointment and disillusion. Everything depends on yourself and little or nothing on the method you choose. It is no more than la finger pointing to the Moon' and only a fool confuses the two. But here, nevertheless, are a couple of personal descriptions of two methods on offer in London today. The first relates my own experience of Maxwell Cade's 'PsychoCybernetics' classes at the Franklin School of Contemporary Studies. In the second, Richard Elen describes the Silva Mind Control' course he took recently. As for the Moon, you have to find that for yourself. "Work out your own salvation. with diligence", as the Buddha put it. Chris Hutton.Squire PSYCHOCYBERNETICS Maxwell Cade MEDIT ATION, says Maxwell Cade, is like Christianity: it has not been tried and found wanting; it has been tried and found difficult. .. For every dozen persons who study minddevelopment there is but one who crosses the bridge dividing theory from practice, and there is much wisdom in the saying that the path to perfection has only two rules Begin, and Continue"* As you attempt to bridle your mind and stem its ceaseless babble it fights back in a surprising way, presenting your conscious self with a stream of rationalisations for not persisting. Hence the nee for structured courses like this one. The first thing is to relax. Cade considers that the best technique to use is the 7,000 year old ZaZen the counting of breaths which leads to a deep UC11: page 102

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physical relaxation combined with a state of high mental awareness. First you must learn to breathe properly, using the diaphragm. Then all you have to do is to count your breaths, thinking of nothing save the counting. This sounds easy but it isn't. Try it and see. It is chastening to realise the gulf which lies between oneself and even elementary thought control. "If these exercises seem trivial and foolish, the answer is that either you can do them or you cannot. If you cannot, do not despise the; if you can, you may pass from them without delay"*. Actually, this course is not chiefly about meditation, but about concentration: "the narrowing of the field of attention in a manner and for a time determined by the will". Skill in concentration is an essential precursor to meditation, which may be defined as the use of that skill for spiritual ends. This is an important distinction and one which all Eastern authorities insist on. It is a pity therefore that, as so often happens in the West, Cade blurs the distinction but it is hardly surprising: who is going to payout money to learn concentration, with all its overtones of the schoolroom? To help us to learn to relax, each student had a simple biofeedback device a skin resistance galvanometer. As you relax you sweat less, your skin resistance increases and down goes the current through the galvanometer. The current does not "measure" your state of consciousness. That is impossible, but the two are closely correlated, so the device gives the student a useful measure of his success. Once he has learnt the knack of relaxing it can be discarded. States of consciousness may be ranked in descending order of the dominant frequency of the brain waves they are associated with. The normal waking state ('beta') is dominated by a frequency above 12 cycles per second. The aim is to learn how to move at will from this to an 'alpha' state (i.e. relaxed awareness of both inside and outside the body, associated with a dominant frequency in the range 8 12 c.p.s.) and then how to calm the mind still further to a 'theta' state (awareness is concentrated inside the body, dominant frequency is between 3 and 7 c.p.s.). Cade also has two biofeedback electroencephalograph (ECG) machines (one he has designed and is marketing himself) which measure the brain waves UC11: page 103

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directly and produce an audible signal when the student is in 'alpha' or 'theta'. These devices mechanised yoga they've been called are certainly not essential but they do help students to get started and to recognise when they are cheating themselves (this is more of a problem than one might think). Next we started to learn to visualise, the key to successful meditation. There are great differences between individuals: some people can visualise easily and think nothing of it; others, like myself, can't do it at all yet. The only way to improve is by practice so the main work of each session was a guided meditation' led by Cade which was in effect a series of visualisation exercises. There are very frustrating if you can't do them. To help, Cade has another device, a stroboscopic coloured light which is supposed to stimulate the brain to visualise better. Though it did nothing for me at the time I notice that now, a month later, I can visualise a bit more than I could before. Once you have got the knack of relaxing and visualising, your mind is broken in and you can set it to work. For example, you can learn to raise or lower your blood temperature at your extremities at will. This is not done by suggestion or by 'will power' but by visualising plunging your hand into a bucket of ice or of boiling water. Many people have poor peripheral circulation, so they feel the cold a lot. Straight medicine can't do anything for them, but their discomfort is 'quite unnecessary: they are suffering from a chronic constriction of the capillary blood vessels. When they learn to relax, and to visualise the warm blood flowing to every corner of their body, these capillaries also relax. Their blood pressure goes down and normal circulation is restored. Or you can start to tap your latent creativity. Cade has another device to help this, a hypnagogostat, which is a 'device to keep you in the hypnagogic state'. It consists of a springloaded buzzer which you have to keep depressed as you relax. If you go too deep it buzzes. This simple instrument of torture keeps you on the edge of 'alpha' allowing visions of new creative ideas to bubble up out of your unconscious into your awareness. That was about as far as we got. The rest of the time Cade spent talking UC11: page 104

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about the theory and practice of mind control, ending with a session on Positive Thinking which he regards as essential to success. My feelings about this are a bit mixed. On the one hand Cade knows his stuff and he has a strong scientific background and many years of practical experience. Some schools, (Silva for example) package what they have to offer in an overblown salesman's hype that is an insult to one's critical intelligence. But not Cade. The trouble was, however, that he had too much to say in the time allotted (about a third of each session) so he covered the ground at a gallop, leaving no time for discussion of either of the theory or aT the practice we were doing. This I think' is a weakness of the course. The strength of the course, without a doubt, lies in the modesty and honesty of purpose of Cade !and of his wife Isabel who runs the E.E.G. machines and has a most remarkable memory for faces. All done by visualisation no doubt). This is a good course for hardnosed sceptical English empiricists (do any such read Undercurrents, I wonder?). Seekers after sensation, the )secret of the universe, astral projection, etc., )should take their money elsewhere. Chris HuttonSquire 'CONCENTRATION AND MEDITATION: A Manual of Mind Development by Christmas Humphreys, for the Buddhist Society (1935). The Fourth Edition of this book, published by Watkins Publishing (1968) is available from Watkins Bookshop, price £1.85 (sewn soft cover). and as a Pelican book in N. America. 1 recommend it for its emphasis on the importance of right motive in any attempt at spiritual development, for the clear distinction it makes between concentration and meditation. and for its pithy style. THE FRANKLIN SCHOOL, 43 Adelaide Road, London, N.W.3. Phone 01 722 0562. The Franklin School of Contemporary Studies is an independent school for adults. They run more than a hundred afternoon and evening courses on a wide range of subjects grouped under the headings Art, Astrology. Biofeedback, Health, Metaphysics, Mind and Body Coordination. Music. Self Appraisal, Theatre and Writing. Each course costs £10 for 10 ninety minute sessions and has a maximum enrolment of twenty people Full details of their Summer Programme (July to midSeptember) and an outline of the courses planned for the Autumn Term (starting October 1) UC11: page 105

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are available on request. The equipment used by :\Maxwell Cade is built and marketed by Audio Ltd .• 22 Wendell Rd .• London W.12. (Phone 01743 1518). It is useful but expensive. The electrical skin resistance meter (Omega 1) costs £27 (inc. VAT), although, since essentially all it consists of is a 50 microampere meter, a couple of resistors and a batter, it would be very easy to make your own. The EEG monitor has been designed by Geoff Blundell of Audio Ltd. to meet Cade's requirements and has a number of unique features. It costs .£ 151.20 (inc. V AT). Audio will also soon be selling an electromyograph (which indicates muscle relaxation) and they are working on a hypnagogostat. What I Think When I Meditate Well. I could tell you that I could tell you but you wouldn't understand but I won't You’d understand but I can't. I mean dig, this here guitar is gone bust I hate to sit cross/egged InY knees hurt my nose runs and I have to go to the crapper tootsweet and damn that timeclock keeper won't ding. WHAT I think about when I meditate is emptiness I remember it well the empty heads the firecrack phhht But what I really think about is sex sort of patterns of sex like dancing hairs and goosebumps No, honestly what 1 think about is what am I thinking about and ‘Who am I' and 'MU’ and ‘the clouds on the southern mt' Well: what I really honestly think about, no fooling ... (etc) Gary Snyder (from Ark III)

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INSTANT SAlVATION at 125 a hit Transcendental Meditation, 32 Cranbourne St, London SW2 01 2403103. £25. (Special rates for couples, pensioners and school/kids). j There is something very odd about r Transcendental Meditation (TM), the , Maharishi's answer to the problems of the'" world. It's not quite clear what sort of animal it is. Is it another concentration technique, another Finger pointing at the moon? Or is it something spiritual a religion almost? Either way, it's overpriced. If you wish simply to bridle your mind so that you can function better in the world, there are ccheaper ways of doing it which are also more honest and straightforward and less patronising. And if you're looking for spiritual guidance, then all authorities agree that no true teacher will take money for.what he gives. When you are ready for a guru, he will appear (though you may not recognise him). Until he does, you must work out your own salvation. These remarks are prompted by going , to hear Jack Forem, one of the Maharishi's sidekicks, speak on his current tour to promote his book (Transcendental Meditation, George Allen and Unwin, £3.50; paperback £1.95). Satish Kumar will be reviewing the book for us in Undercurrents 12 I have nodoubt that many thousands I of people have benefited from practising I TM. What I object to is the crude and in)sincere .way in which it is marketed by Mr. Forem and his colleagues. No doubt this I is partly a cultural bias: it may be that ::overselling is so customary in Southern ::California that it never occurs to them I that a more straightforward, not to say understated, approach might be more appropriate in this country. This hard sell technique is a kind of cultural imperialism"", '. and must therefore ultimately fail because It will never attract more than a few peoplep] :e in any country outside the culture from which it springs. How large this group is in a spirituallybankrupt country like our I , have no idea. At the moment the TM organisation claims 40,000 'meditators' (this, of' :course, is a gross cheapening of the language, but let it pass) and 1,500 recruits a I month. UC11: page 107

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At £25 a time that £1 million already: not bad money if you can get it. I think I'll be a guru when (iF) I grow up. Chris Hutton Squire

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39-40 Elen Cross My Mind With Silva I HAVE this friend, who works in a London bookshop. I met him a few years ago because his place of work has just about the finest selection of mystical' books in the city. For the past year, he has been suggesting, almost every time I saw him, that l should go on this 'Alphagenics' course that he had taken. But I never got round to going to any of the courses, because of lack of time and money the course costs a seemingly extortionate £45. But I am certain of the fact that opportunities present themselves when one is ready for them. When I finally had some spare time that coincided with an introductory lecture, I decided that at least I could go and check it out The lecture was at a hotel in Buckingham Gate, one Thursday evening. I went along, and took my seat amongst thirtyodd other people of surprisingly varied age and appearance, from the cleancut businessman to the hairy freak. It was lucky that the organisers had plenty of literature to back up their claims, because the lecture itself was rather unimpressive. It was very much aimed at "turning on" the straight people in the audience to the idea that we had a huge potential, available in our minds. Which was all 'very well, but I don't appreciate sales talk and cheap parlour tricks. And I don't need to know someone's qualifications before I'll listen to them. However, I was moderately impressed by some of what this introductory lecturer, an Australian architect, had to say sufficiently so to take his advice and return to the final introductory lecture which was given the following week by the American teacher who was taking the course itself. This was an entirely different kettle of fish. Yes, there was mild sales talk at the beginning, but it was pretty innocuous. The rest of the lecture plunged straight into the deep end. We talked about different levels of consciousness, about ESP, about Clive Backster's demonstrations of plant intelligence, about levels where time and space no longer hold any sway. These things did not surprise me: far from it. I am convinced of the existence of these areas of investigation; because I have experienced them. Telepathy and clairvoyance are real to me because they happen to me. Frequently. This guy was inviting me to take a course which would UC11: page 109

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put those faculties ESP, intuition, call them Jose Silva "IT IS HIGHLY ESSENTIAL THAT WE TRAIN ALL HUMAN BEINGS TO USE THE ALPHA REGION OF THEIR BRAIN" what you will under conscious control, enabling them to be used when required. like any other senses. He was talking my language. I decided to take the course. So the following Saturday I turned up at the hotel, armed with a sleeping bag to lie on, as the programming cycles" require a high degree of relaxation. At nine in the morning, we began the Silva Mind Control course. We were told how J OS< Silva, the originator of the system, developed the techniques as a means of teaching his children. We learned how Mind Control regards the brain as a highly developed computer, that is programmed by the nonphysical mind, and by its physical surroundings. We were informed that, in. fact, there are no such things as external influences on the mind; we only think there are as a result of the way we have been conditioned by society, education and our prents. So the initial aim of the course is to remove the effects of this "negative programming" and replace it with positive thought. This, it was claimed, would enable us to regain our lost faculties. Positive thinking was emphasised as being one of the keys to success in this area. You don't say "I can't do this", because in so doing, you deny yourself any possibility. You say "I have not yet done this"" thus leaving the possibility open. We learned about the different levels of consciousness; the normal or Beta state, indicated by brain waves of a frequency of 12 40 Hz as measured on the electroencephalograph; the Alpha state, characterised by frequencies in the range 7 12 Hz, corresponding to the dream state in normal sleep, the level of ESP, intuition and creativity; the Theta state (3 7 Hz.,) at which anaesthesia and control of body functions can take place; and the Delta state, the realm of deep sleep (0, 53 Hz) about which little is known. The brain cycles through each of these levels in normal sleep, dropping from Beta (wakefulness), down first to Delta, then up to Alpha for a dream, then down to Theta, then up to Alpha again, then down, dropping each time to a lessdeep UC11: page 110

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level between dreams until, finally, waking up occurs. The first part of the course consists of training for entering the Alpha state consciously. Unlike the 'biofeedback' Alpha courses, in which a device is used to indicate the brain state, Silva courses use solely a 'talking down' procedure to reach Alpha. When the state has been reached, via total controlled relaxation, a conditioned reflex is programmed, so that the student will be able to reach Alpha (or "go to level" as we say) by merely relaxing and counting down from three to one. This ensures that the Alpha state can be easily reached at will, this state being where the majority of Mind Control operations take place. Silva instructors do not deny the efficacy of biofeedback devices. They know that there are many doors into the subconscious, be it through programming, psychocybernetics, meditation, or whatever. You all get to the same place, whatever the method. In the first day, we were given techniques for going to sleep instantly, waking up without an alarm at a predetermined time, staying awake for long periods, and remembering dreams. We were also taught how to programme for a dream to contain Information for solving problems. Much of Mind Control is designed for living in the physical world more effectively. The second day was concerned with visualization, another fundamental technique in Mind Control. A means of improving the memory via visualization was given, enabling one to remember lists of objects (or anything else for that matter) hundreds of items long if practiced diligently. Practice is an important element: your mental abilities are strongly reinforced by success, and this success will only continue if the techniques are practiced frequently. This is not a burden, however, as in my case at least the procedures have become a fundamental part of my daytoday existence and I use them almost without thinking. It is perhaps analogous to learning to ride a bicycle. We learned also how to visualize a problem, and then the problem solved, using a technique ,known as 'mirror of the mind'. The power of mind is so great, that the . UC11: page 111

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mere visualisation of the problem solved results in the manifestation of the solution at the physical level. This device may also be used for 'programming' the occurrence of desired events. A mundane example: you can programme a parking space in a crowded area of town; as you arrive at the visualised location, a car pulls away in front of you, leaving the exact space empty. There is no manipulation' involved if you asked the other driver, he would have perfectly normal reasons for leaving. The reason it works is that, in the Alpha state, there is no time element involved; it is just a 'programmed coincidence'. What Jung would have called a 'synchronistic'. occurrence. We then learned a technique involving deeper levels of mind: the Theta state and its use for removing pain. Another conditioned response is instituted, and we can thereafter remove pain and stop bleeding in our own bodies, or those of other people. It appears that we all have this ability to heal, it's just a matter of learning how to do it. And it really works: I've done it on myself, and others, and a friend I met at the course told of how he had smashed the side of his skull in a motorcycle accident, and had not only removed the pain completely, but had made a remarkably rapid recovery, leaving no scars, simply by programming. But the final two days (the course is spread over two weekends) were the most remarkable. They concerned the realm of Subjective Communication', or ESP. We were guided through mental projection of our senses into the various matter kingdoms: mineral, vegetable, animal, and human; establishing points of reference for future work. Points of reference are essential, because each person may see the same thing in different ways on these subjective levels we need to establish exactly what a given experience indicates. We experienced subjective creation: we created, in our minds, a complete laboratory for psychic work, including screens for visualisation of people for healing, or for seeing into the past, present or future; information storage facilities, tools and instruments; and most remarkable of all, we introduced two people, known as our counsellors', who are in fact, not creations of our own. They take their own form, and seem to be external entities. I believe them to be analogous to the concept of 'spirit guides'. This may UC11: page 112

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seem to be a bit too much to cope with; all I would say is that the truth of their existence is unquestionable to me. In this area of subjective science, literally nothing is impos.sible. And those Subjective experiences are just as real as any objective reality. They yield true, objective information, so how can they be unreal? The comes the high, makeorbreak point of the course. Splitting up into groups of three, we are presented with what are called cases. In these, we take turns at acting as recorder, psychic, and 'orientologist'. The recorder takes notes on everything that occurs. The psychic goes to his laboratory level, and is given the name, sex, age and approximate location of a person with some illness or disability. (This person is obviously unknown him.) The orientologist guides the psych in analysing the body visualized on his screen, asking him to see if any parts of the body attract his attention, gradually narrowing down the field of vision until the psychic can make specific comments on the problem. Everything he says is noted down; even what appear to him to be mere guesses. And the astounding thing, is that heis right Not sometimes, or partially, but all the time, and absolutely. I did ten cases that day and each one was 100%. As far as I know, so were nearly everyone else's. Not only did I get impressions of the various illnesses, but accurate physical descriptions, and even information about the subject's jobs, their surrounding and what they were doing. If we were at dissatisfied with our accuracies, we could ask there and then for our money back. Noone did. Finally, we undertook a short mental trip, in the form of a guided mediation, which included a visit to one of our past lives. You may be quite forgiven for not believing this concept, but keep an open mind as you read on. During the course, I had had long, involved discussions with one of the previous graduates of the course. Both of us believed strongly in reincarnation, and we had already noted that we had known each other in several past existences a factor which often underlies a close tie between people. In this experience, we both, independently, visited the same past life, had exactly the same experience (except that I saw it through my eyes, and he saw it through his). We agreed exactly on the date, location, and events that occurred, right down to the finest detail. Much of this information we could never have known; but it was true, as subsequent investigation at the British Museum proved. UC11: page 113

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We had come across information that was known only to a few specialists. Is there any way in which this information could have been obtained without invok.ing the existence of such metaphysical concepts as reincarnation, or at least telepathy of a very high accuracy? I leave you to your beliefs. Whether or not you accept the existence of these faculties, phenomena, powers, call them what you will, all I can say is that they occur. Some may well see no relevance of this kind of study to a magazine like Undercurrents, but what is Alternative Science if it is not the study of aspects of natural fore< which normal, straight science is loath to investigate, whether because of political dogma or plain disbelief? How can we turn a blind eye to such phenomena: phenomena which are older than science itself, and every day are becoming more and more important in the public mind? If people like ourselves do not take such matters seriously, we may well miss out on something that could be just as important as physical alternative science and technology will be in the communities of the future. I await your comments. Richard Elen

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41-43 Kewell Getting your goat KEEPING a goat, that deceptively simple short cut to instant, free milk and cheese, is, in reality, fraught with more than a few complications, as Tom Kewell explains. Not that it isn't still worthwhile, mind you: but dewy eyed self sufficiency freaks will have to get used to bottle feeding new born female kids five times a day; and would be vegetarians will have to face up to slaughtering the male kids soon after birth (though maybe vegetarian readers have a way out of such dilemmas? If so, we'd like to hear from them). Meanwhile, kiss your illusions good bye and read on.

THE GOAT is one of the most efficient producers of nutritious healthful good available. Compared to a cow, its annual yield doesn't seem much, averaging perhaps 200 gallons against the cow's 1000 gallons. But do you really have any use for 8,000 pints of milk in a year? I know that milk is 87% water, but even when you remove all the water from 200 gallons of milk, you still get left with 260 lbs of solid food, all protein, fats, vitamins and minerals. Would a steer, perhaps, give you more food value and less work? well, let's take a look. A reasonable steer will gain about 600 Ibs in a year; quite a lot of beef walking about, you may say. But the animal is on the hoof still. When hide, hoof, head and entrails are discarded, about 300 Ibs of meat remains. However. since 60% of this is you've guessed it water, only 120 Ibs is solid food. Less than half of the food value which your goat was happy to produce, and you still have to get another calf to rear for next winter. Meanwhile, your goat is back in kid, and you can expect another 200 gallons of milk in the next lactation. The cost in terms of grain works out at about 2 tons for the steer and something under}> ton for the goat, who in return will give back about 16 times her own weight in milk. Feeding. Square One A popular fallacy exists that goats can and will produce milk on a very low plane of nutrition and that they are capable of surviving (if not thriving) almost exclusively on weeds, rubbish and the occasional line of household washing. It is true that goats are sometimes forced to exist on next to nothing, that they have been known to snatch the odd mouthful of washing hung out to dry, and will also sometimes eat paper and similar substances, but none of these things is done by choice. If kept short of fibre, essential to all ruminants, the goat will supplement UC11: page 115

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its diet in any way it can. But instead of paper, the goat prefers ash and elm twigs and bark. The digestive system of goats represents from 15% to an exceptional 50% of the animal's body weight. Compared to a cow's 12}> to 15%, this is relatively high, and it can be seen that goats are designed for 'bulk throughput' which means fibre, and lots of it. The goat is capable of digesting a considerable part of the fibrous tissues of plants and this fermentation of cellulose liberates other plant nutrients. Cellulose fermentation in the rumen produces volatile fatty acids which are the major source of ruminant energy; the source of this fermentation is a large population of rumen microorganisms. In building up their cellular structures the microorganisms synthesise proteins. and carbohydrates which become available to the animal further down the digestive tract The symbiotic relationship of microorganism and host ensures a source of nutrients to both but it is as well to remember that digestion within the rumen is independent. The animal's nutritional needs will not affect the efficiency of this process and it is only after processing in the rumen that nutrients become available for peptic digestion and selective absorption, through the walls of the intestine, to meet specific requirements. No Free Range? Many of the above remark, will al,o apply to the urban goat keeper, the only difference being that the goats will be more or less permanently housed and everything they eat must be brought to them. This, i, not too much of a job if only two or three goat' are kept and there i, the advantage of having the manure easily accessible for composting. One goat on its own is never a happy animal and will let you know this, all day and every day as well as developing other neurotic tendencies. Housed goat' need a minimum of 20 'q. feet of pen space per adult animal and this, usually means a separate pen per goat if feeding time is not to develop into a freeforall ,scramble. Bedding can be wood ,having, (not easily com pasted after u,e), or barley straw, or dried bracken. Wheat straw isn't much use and green bracken has toxic effects, having been known to cause blindness in sheep. A hay rack with a top or lid i, e,essential goats like nothing better than eating out of the top, of rack, rather than through UC11: page 116

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the ,sIats" and when they do '0 a great deal of hay i, wasted. Anything falling to the ground i, ignored (possibly a defence mechanism against internal parasites). Anyway, once it's down it stays down, no matter how much it cost you. Housed goats need regular attention to their hooves, which can become overgrown and a source of trouble if not trimmed or worn down naturally. Horns are better removed with the kids are two or three week, old. Not that the animal would want to do any damage with her horns, but accidents can happen. Goat, with horn, will always' try to dominate those without, and udders can be damaged in this way. So, get rid of horns early in life and you'll be glad in the end. The Kid Cycle Goat' are 98% fertile and in this, country it is normal for twins to be born after a five month pregnancy. Singletons also occur, and more rarely three or more kids are born. Birth weight varies with the breed and other factors, but our records ,how an average of 7 • 8 Ib,. Kids are born with eyes open and are on their feet almost at once looking for a teat to ,suck. For the first few day' after kidding the udder will ,supply colostrum. This, will provide the kid with many of the antibodies it needs to survive in a world filled with microorganisms. After a short space of time the kid becomes incapable of absorbing these essential antibodies, so it's a good idea to make sure it gets a decent drink within twenty minutes of birth, if it doesn't make the attempt itself. Colostrum is also a fairly laxative food and will help get the kid', bowel, moving. Don't be ,surprised at any dark looking faeces which appear, these are the contents of the bowels which were ingested via the umbilical cord. The dam usually make, an effort to lick the kids dry, not because she wants them dry but because ,he will ,eek to replace ,some of the many pint' of body fluid, lost during the kidding. Offer her ,some tepid water with salt in it after she has cleaned up the kid,. Before this, a watch ,should be kept for the placenta or afterbirth. Very often she will want to cat this and it never seems to do any harm. It is said to contain a certain amount of useful vitamins, but if she shows no interest it can be removed out of the way. A, 'soon as possible after being born kid, ,should be checked to ,see UC11: page 117

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which 'ex they are. If you only want to rear female kids this is the time to dispose of unwanted males. Don't be tempted to keep them as pets. They make rotten pets, even when you have had them castrated. So dispose of them cleanly and quickly now, for later on you may not be able to face the job. Surplus, male, can be reared for the pot, in which case castration is again necessary. They make very good eating indeed if you keep them about four months or so. Male, are capable of breeding from the age of three months and from then on need to be separated. Stud male, are really be,t left to tho,e who have the expertise,e to manage them, don't forget also that it's the male who carrie, those scent gland, which you can ,me II half a mile down wind. Kid, are enjoyable to rear by hand, if you have the time. If you don't hand rear, your milkinggoat will not provide you with the milk you want, as ,supply will keep pace with the demand, of the kid. After about ,ix month, ,he i, likely to 'tart to dry up if the kid run, with her. Additional factors are involved here for, if the kid ,tay' on the dam, it will very likely be as near a wild animal as you could find. This, i, not to say that it would not be just as good as a hand reared kid, but you'll never get near it. For the first two week, kid, will need five bottles a day, 'starting with 8 oz feed, and working up to 1 pint. After that the feed, can be adjusted to four per day for a week or so, and then down to three a day. By this, time they ,should be on 1\4 pints a feed at least. The average kid will be eating ,solid food quite well by the time it',.a month old, but this, doesn't mean that milk i, f; longer needed. Without milk the kid will lack calcium for bone growth. Milk ,should be continued for at least the first six months of life, but keep in mind that after 16 week, the milk i, ,supplied on decreasing scale as the rumen should be developing to accommodate bulk food" During its first autumn and winter your kid will do very well on hay and UI to 1 Ib of concentrates a day. Do not tempted to feed more than this, the result will be a pot belly and internal fat Plenty of,exercise during this, period help normal growth and from about February UC11: page 118

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a diet ,lightly higher in protein will help keep things moving until the Spring grass comes. The kid now becomes, at a year old, a goatling. She will only need her fair share of bulk roughages through her second Su mer in order to bring her up to the age when mating will be possible. The goatling will start coming into season from about September, and will cycle regularly for the' next five or six months. The usual average i, every 21 day" but this, can vary a day two either side. One of our goats cycles a 19 days, and seems none the worse for it. A ,light discharge of clear mucus" a briskIy wagging tail and sometimes a lot of calling will tell you 'soon enough when your goatling is in season. Bear in mind that pregnancy last' about. 150 days, and work out when you want to kid. ;then take her off to a ,suitable male: goat for mating. During pregnancy ,he will need normal feeding for the first three months and an increased diet for the last eight week,. A high level of feeding throughout the pregnancy can lead to kid, which are ,imply too big to be born with ease, and a high mineral diet can lead to kids whose bones are too brittle at birth. Kid, grow very ,lowly in the first twelve week, of pregnancy and their food requirements are minimal. However, the picture changes during the last two month, and throughout this, time the diet ,should rise to the level 01 a full production ration, this level being reached a week before kidding. The more sappy and succulent the diet the better. You are in fact feeding for milk before the kids come, and the first kidder will show increased udder development at any time during this phase. This is often called 'bagging up' and, with a first kidder, may not occur until almost the last few days before kidding. It helps to ease out some of the colostrum in the early stages as the goat will have far more than the kid{s can use. Colostrum, also known as beastings, can be made into what is called 'beastings pudding' by those who know. You make it if you want to, though we usually feed ours to the pigs or chickens, who don't complain. Having settled on your kid rearing method, and being faced with a regular supply of milk, your thoughts by now may well be turning to cheese, butter and yoghurt Of these yoghurt is easiest to make and demands little in the way of equipment and work. UC11: page 119

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To make butter the cream has to be separated from the milk. Part of the advantage of goat's milk is that the cream, which is in fact the butterfat, comes in relatively small globules. Hence the cream does not float to the top of the jug, but remains in suspension for quite a long time. If you put the fresh milk in shallow pans or dishes the cream can be skimmedoff after 36 to 48 hours. Alternatively, a hand separator will do the job a great deal more quickly and efficiently. Of the soft cheeses the easiest to make is cottage cheese, needing only the addition of a suitable starter to warm milk. When this sets into a thin junket it can be tipped into a muslin bag and set to drip. The whey contains a lot of useful food, and can be retained for later use. Chives or other herbs can be mixed in to the cheese when all dripping stops, and the consistancy is to your liking. Hard cheeses take at least six weeks, and sometimes a good deal longer if you go in for the Stiltons. Basic methods vary a little but mostly involve turning the warmed milk into curd by using rennet When the curd is set it is broken up and salt may be added. The curd is next placed into moulds which need to be turned daily until the cheese stands up to removal. Then a'bandage is wrapped round the cheese and a period of turning ensues. Its a lot of work to make a decent hard or semihard cheese and I would recommend that you make a start on yoghurt and soft cheese before investing in any further cheese making equipment Yoghurt making involves culturing raw milk, and incubating for a period which varies from 4 8 hours. Temperature control during the incubation period has to be spot on. Failure in this area leads to wheying off, or death of the culture organisms. We had some messy failures when we first tried to make our own yoghurt, but have now reached a stage when it all goes like clockwork most of the time! Goats milk as fresh milk is of great value to infants born with infantile excema and allied complaints. The problems are mostly caused by the baby being allergic to the protein factor in cows milk the change to goats milk has been UC11: page 120

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known to work wonders in some cases. (One of our friends had to return from Ireland because she was unable to find a regular supply of goats milk and the child was unable to sleep because of the skin irritation caused by cows milk.) A pint of goats milk forms curds in the stomach in about 20 minutes; the same pint of milk from a cow has been known to take 90 minutes to form a curd. Digestion is that much faster because of the smaller fat globules although butterfat figures are much the same at around four per cent. Many of the crops which can be grown for goats will find a place in the vegetable garden too. Peas and beans, cabbages and kales, swedes and turnips can all be used for feeing to both goats and goat keepers. Artichokes can be regarded as a dual purpose crop in that the goats will enjoy the leaf and stem which are not used in the kitchen. Mackenzie (see below) tells us that a milker needs fiveeights of an acre to supply her entire yearly food. This includes hay which can of course be bought in fromoutside. Not many goatkeepers keep their animals entirely by growing all their food, but it can be done. If you can dispose of some of the surplus milk products this will offset any expenditure on concentrates and hay. Further Reading Far and away the best book to start with is David Mackenzie's Goat Husbandry, Faber 1970. A bit pricey at £3.75, but well worth it for the commonsense attitude employed throughout Dairy Work for Goatkeepers published by the British Goat Society at 0 pence is a must for intending cheesemakers. Very practical and thorough. Yoghurt culture may be obtained from the various agricultural colleges, one that is most helpful being the West of Scotland Agricultural College, Auchincruive, Ayr. Cheese molds in all sizes can be obtained from W. H. Boddington and Company Ltd., Horsmonden, Kent, TN 12 BAH. The British Goat Society, Rougham, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk can supply information on all aspects of goat keeping and the names and addresses of local goatkeeping organisations. By joining your local goat club and visiting local members you will get a fair idea of what goatkeeping will demand of you. It's better than jumping in at the deep end and hoping for the best. Goatkeepers always welcome new recruits to the ranks and you will at least know what you're missing if you decide to stay with Unigate. Tom Kewell UC11: page 121

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44-48 Woody: Towards An Alternative Culture IN the first part of this series of articles, in Undercurrents 10, Woody concluded that there are "four basic positions which a radical may hold: revolutionary. reformer, escapist. teacher", and that "none of them can be written off as rubbish, for each holds aspects of the truth". To summarise, he writes, the escapist and the exemplar both see that nothing moves until we change our attitudes. The political workers see most clearly how the rules make us what we are. The Revolutionary and the Escapist see the defeating mesh of interconnections, and they attempt to step outside them. The reformer and the teacher see real people living lives that are not full, but not empty either, and know they must not be thrown away for the future, or for a gamble on paradise. Whatever, as radicals, we try to do, we must surely take account of all this wisdom." Woody now goes on to outline a model of social change, and looks at some of the characteristics of human sociality (living for each other"), the ever.receding goal towards which he believes all efforts towards radical change should be directed.

IT HELPS to have a picture, or model, of social change in your mind when working to change society. Most radicals do have a simple model of social change usually seen as political change which allows them to identify their objective, and to describe existing societies, political movements and so on. Figure 1 (a) shows a common Right versus Left model as used by those with radical views (Le. Right and Left radicals). Those with so called moderate views the conservatives (small c) of all central parties sometimes use a cunning variation of figure 1 (a) in which the ends are bent back to form a circle. This allows them to deduce that 'extremists' (radicals) of Left and Right are 'as bad as each other'. Now these models have no sense of social evolution, of real peoples actively making history. Indeed, they give one the feeling of politics as some kind of game and for many of those who use them, that just about sums it up. A social model which takes account of evolution is shown in its simplest form at figure 1 (b). (Note that in this case there is no such thing as a Right wing radical: any political force moving against the wheel of history is reactionary by definition.) This type of thinking has been accompanied by great advances in social understanding, and has enabled its followers to become a political force on the stage of history although not with the expected results. Ironically, the chief feature of this historical model is that it closes history. A number of modern societies have developed in such a way as to spoil the classical predictions. The picture is continually being modified to take account of these variation and to interpret UC11: page 122

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historical change as a more open process, but the early confidence has gone. Partly in response to the spectacle of 'capitalist' and 'socialist' states with equally unpleasant features, partly as a symptom of advancing alienation, the libertarian model shown at figure 1 (c) has become popular. Although seldom found in its pure form (Le. most adherents double expose' the image with other ideas allowing some kind of social organisation), this concept is highly damaging to the growth of understanding which might guide constructive action for change. 1 will look at the reason for this later. What picture of society is most useful for us? One could ask the question: "In what fundamental ways can a number of dynamic, purposeseeking, living creatures relate to each other so as to form a social whole?" And also "How many of these modes are stable?" Three 'pure' or 'extreme' conditions, I believe, are possible. The three modes can be labelled hierarchy, community and competition. These labels are selfexplaining, I think. Their relationship is pictured in figure 2(a). Now in nature, from the lowest organisms right up to early human communities, competition within the social unit other than transitional, quicklyresolved conflicts is an unstable condition. (This should not be confused with the conflicts between lone individuals, groups and species, where competition may be stable in an overall ecological sense). Thus the greater part of the triangle contained by the three extremes is uninhabitable (indicated by the dotted lines). All real social groups must lie close to the line between hierarchy and community. This is observed to be the case. But with the growth of human civilisation, especially in the modern era, very important changes have been taking place in human nature and human society the two are dialectically related to each otherl of course. It is as though there were two different human societies completely intel meshed with each other; not just consisting of these people and those, but often coexisting within the same individual. At the psychological level, part of the change has been the gradual triumph of rational over instinctive patterns of thought. With the older thinking, another human being would be classified as either friend or foe. With the emergence of 'rational man' it becomes possible to think of another human being as an object whose needs can be used as a means UC11: page 123

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to one's our ends. The vital feature of this new relationship is that it can be reciprocal. It is also independent of instinctive (or subjective) attitudes. Those concerned can have relations of friendship, enmity, indifference, or not even know each other! The new man opens up a new dimension of society. (And the changing society also calls into existence the new man we must never lose sight of the dialectic). Individuals in objective competition with each other are now able to create (by supplying each other's needs at a price), large, sophisticated, modern societies which are fairly stable. The era of alienation has begun. Whereas in figure 2(a), most of the trio angle was an unstable zone, it is now likely that most of it can be occupied by real societies. as figure 2(b). It is not only the mode of competition which is transformed, however, In the age of rational man, the old blind conditions of hierarchy and community (evoking visions of termite colonies) must also fall. Their modern counter parts are tyranny and sociality, in which the bondage, and the comradeship, are consciously experienced. The clock will not go back, nor should we wish it so. Referring to figure 3(a), any real society must lie somewhere within the triangle, and therefore contains some authority, some alienation, and some sociality. The boundaries represent the extreme conditions. Any ideal society on the line between tyranny and sociality will be free from alienation. Likewise, one on the line between sociality and alienation will be truly anarchic. Finally, one on the line between tyranny and alienation will feature no voluntary cooperation between its members: they will be 'all living against each other'. We now see how major changes can take place in societies, and in human attitudes, without any change in human sociality. Such changes lie in the dimension of power struggle. In so far as power struggles are struggles between competing interest groups, or classes, they may shift the balance of power in favour of this or that group. Where these changes can also be seen as victories of the majority over the minority interest, they are victories of alienation over authority. The worldof these changes is the world of politics. And as the man said, politics is about power. But social change, on our.model , has two dimensions. The second is the cultural axis: the dimension of values struggle. Changes arising from UC11: page 124

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values struggles can be measured as increases or decreases in human sociality. Or, using our original simple definition, in the extent to which we live either for each other or against each other. Real struggles are not bound to fall into one of these ideal categories. This introduces the idea of compound social struggle, involving both power struggle and values struggle. This in turn explains a number of situations which have been observed in the social conditions of this century such as compound struggles combining a drive towards sociality with a political tendency that is clearly authoritarian. Also, we can note that in oppressive societies, values struggle becomes increasingly hopeless, since its intended direction would take the system outside the boundaries of real, possible societies. The oppressed cannot give what they do not have. For those living under tyranny, valuescompounded power struggle becomes the highest' form of struggle. The temptation at this point is to see cultural change as a psychological or moral problem a battle to be fought in the head and political change as the problem of dealing with the external world. This is a very undialectical approach. It is also hopelessly wrong. as our earlier examination of attempted change has shown. The changes (for instance) from an oppressive tyranny to an alienated democracy both requires and produces very great changes in the outlook of the human beings involved. Likewise, sociality is as much a social as a psychological condition of mankind. Changes in attitudes can only be sustained by, as they sustain, changes in the real conditions of life. Thus we arrive at our picture of modern society, our framework for possible social change. It is only a model: one can hardly expect to represent what is possibly the most complex entity in the universe with a few strokes of the pen. The question is "Is a it a good model?" I believe it is a useful starting point for a discussion by individuals, who happen to be radicals, as to what they should be doing with their lives. With the aid of figures 3(a) and 3(b), it becomes possible to add depth to our earlier discussion. Figure 3(b) puts a few feature<; on the map. As UC11: page 125

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well as locating the 'ideal' of our modern mature societies, it attempts to relate such common notions as paternalism, anarchy, communism, to the fundamental conditions of tyranny, alienation and sociality. A number of real societies, together with their possible trends of development, are also positioned. To avoid secondary arguments, let me say that the exact locations chosen are merely my subjective (and in most cases secondhand) images of those societies. If the principles of this kind of analysis prove useful objective methods for locating real cultures will no doubt be developed. A thoughtful examination of figure 3(b) will show that it is possible to account for a number of features not easily explained by other social theories the relationship between 'socialist' Russia and 'capitalist' Sweden for instance; or the superiority of Chinese over Russian 'socialism', despite the former's greater unorthodoxy. Of greater interest to us are the societies, including the one we suffer from, which have matured to the point where authority and alienation are more..or less in balance. Britain is shown as moving back a little towards authority (as well as downwards!). Even if this movement is real, it must be seen as a minor reverse in a longer term trend towards alienation. More important is the fact that the movement, or drift, of nearly all mature societies is small. We can now quantify the statement made earlier that 'there is some good in our society', by expressing a society's 'good' in terms of its distance above the notional 'mature' society. Let us call this distance the sociality index. Note that the subjective image which a mature society holds of itself, and attempts to present, is one with a far higher sociality than its real index would show. According to the official view, we are all one great big happy family. As an exercise in the use of this picture of society for charting social change, figure 4 gives an interpretation of the Russian revolution. The comments on figure 3(b) again apply, plus the obvious remark that only the principal events are charted, and in a highly schematic form. (Real systems are not obliged to move in straight lines!) The key needs very little additional commentary. The reform agitation includes the 1905 period of semirevolution. The arrow C' is an attempt to gauge the mean of a wide range of spontaneous tendencies released UC11: page 126

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during the second phase of the revolution. Those who would accuse the Bolsheviks of heading off the revolution would do well to remember a few facts. First, without them the second phase of the revolution would probably not have taken place. Second, without them, and with or without the socialist revolution, the Whites backed by the world's ruling elites would almost certainly have taken the whole system back to square one literally. It was in the balance for some time. Third, even the road chosen proved to be culturally overvalued, so to speak. The objective life attitudes: of the revolutionary leaders themselves, of the industrial workers, but above all of the millions of peasants, could not sustain the revolution's subjective aspirations. The N.E.P. was un avoidable. If the Bolsheviks should be attacked for anything, it should be for what they were not doing twenty years and more before the revolution not for the moves they made on. a hopeless chess board once the die was cast. Even this criticism loses much of its meaning when you see where they had to start from. Values struggle in a mature alienated democracy is one thing. In a semifeudal tyranny, it's something else again. Cynics may care to comment that the whole saga was a painful way of progressing from 1 to 4. The best tribute that we, as radicals, can pay to the millions who died is to extract every ounce of understanding from their experience. To the extent that the model we have built does give a true, or objective, picture of the scope for social change, we can use it to show the way in which societies are changing. We can also use it to measure the direction in which various political and cultural movements are trying to move them. Now the direction in which a political group, say, is working may not be the direction it thinks it is working. A great number of radical groups have subjective aims (I.e. the direction in which they hope to move society) that they could identify, give or take a little, with what we have called sociality. Their real, objective, aims (i.e. the direction in which society would move if they became effective) may be entirely different. Indeed, if they are committed to power struggle in a mature society, it must be so. In our imaginations we can create the impossible. It follows that the UC11: page 127

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subjective aims of radicals (and others) may be towards human conditions which can have no existence in reality: they are not contained within the boundaries of possibility we have shown. Such attitudes are unhelpful for radicals (of all kinds), though they make sense for those the conservative who oppose real movement Their special danger is that they hold out a promise for optimum conditions the best of all worlds whose glitter is very attractive. To choose a ridiculous example, some might desire a world of tyrants, in which all of us were emperors, and no one was oppressed. (Crazy or not, a diluted version of this theme is the subjective basis of much conservative ideology.) We can now return to another subjective myth which is just as ridiculous as the one above, though this is not obvious at first. The libertarian model shown at figure 1 (c) holds up the liberated individual, the free human being. as its target: all social bonds are seen as oppressive. Su t what is the reality? Free men, if they were possible, must be isolated individuals. Any contact between these individuals would introduce a tension, a potential conflict of will, that could only be resolved in one of the three fundamental modes, or some combination of them. But it has been convincingly demonstrated that individual man is man the 'animal'. Compared with such an animal, even ape colonies would be advanced civilizations. Though it may be hard for our common sense to accept it, all that makes us human personality, language, creativity, etc. resides not inside us but outside us, in the human bonds between us. What is the real, objective direction of this kind of thinking? In its pure form it is 'straight towards alienation and further towards alienation than any society we have yet seen. At the same time it is also a product of alienation. The selfish, narcissistic alienation of some of the young libertarian scene counterpoints the hard, competitive alienation of the previous generation which they (rightly) despise. However, as the concept of free man is progressively blended with notions of social obligation, so the objective purpose of these radicals moves through alienated anarchy to sod anarchy and beyond (figure 3(b»). Having said all that, we can now define with clarity our own social purpose: we work to create the real conditions of hum an socialitY. Why? There are really two questions here: why sociality? and why struggle, why UC11: page 128

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be radical at all ? The second question can wait for the moment the answer will show itself in due course. So why sociality The previous discussion of social change was supposedly detached, impartial, objective. In fact, our subjective preference mine and yours was glaringly obvious throughout: implicitly assumed by me, ., taken for granted by you. Even the geometry was loaded. Why not alienation, or more wittily authority, at the top of the: pyramid? Or how about replacing the polemical label tyranny with a good establishment word like order? Any hostile reader who might have strayed into the audience has the advantage of us right now. Simply because our cause seems so obviously just . the little matter of its justification can easily be overlooked. There is no universal agreement that sociality is desirable. For many human being it isn't. The motivation of great numbers of individuals is personal advancement, which carried to its logical conclusion means being king of the castle. Then again there are those who assert that the tension of what we have called alienated conflict is the stuff that life is made of. Vet again the true pragmatist (a rare bird, not to confused with the opportunist variety) might root for the median of our social triangle as the best obtainable world. Still others live for causes not directly related to social change: the pursuit of pure knowledge as an end in its own right; or the total fulfilment of physical and mental powers in contest with other humans or with nature, e.g. the challenge of high mountains. It follows that human beings can be motivated by an infinite variety of purposes. When we are considering social purpose, then in general each one can be represented by a particular direction on our social map. We have already noted that there may be a difference between the subjective and objective purposes of an individual or group. More obviously, there can be a difference between declared and intended purposes. Thus for each individual or group considered we must take account of three goals: where they say they are going, where they think they are going, and where they are going. Now with respect to anyone purpose, all activity which has a bearing on it can be classified as good or bad, right or wrong, according to whether it aids or opposes the cause. That is to say, for each purpose there is an attendant morality. Indeed, the words purpose and morality are almost synonymous. UC11: page 129

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If this is so, it follows that it is impossible to prove that you are right and the other fellow is wrong. The morality by which you would do so is not his morality. The most you can hope to do is prove that his morality is not right for a given purpose, and perhaps drive into the open the real purpose his morality serves. Now this state of affairs goes against the grain of "human nature": the self stabilising mechanism, or internal gyroscope, we have developed in response to our culture a culture in which we are in fundamental tension with each other. When an individual, religious or political group, or whole society, loses its faith in its own rightness, disintegration is on the cards. We need to prove we are right almost like we need bread. So we often create some absolute authority, perhaps a god, which can referee the argument. And (we find) ours is the true faith, the right, the good, the correct line ..... the other person's position is false, heathen, evil, deviationist This is fine if we just want to survive. But if the point is to change the world and ourselves, to close the gap between how things are and how we think they should be, then we have to get our sums right, and not allow them to be rigged by our subjective needs. This really puts us on the spot, because in order to serve our purpose, we have to admit that the purpose itself is not divine. It has no absolute virtue. Neither humanity, nor democracy, nor equality., nor fraternity. Not justice, not freedom, not truth, not love. Neither socialism, nor pacifism, nor any other 'ism'. Not one of the great causes for which so much has been dared and suffered. We can summarise this discussion in the following axiom: There is no Absolute morality: there are no absolute standards of right and wrong. All morality is relative to the purpose it serves. From this painful moment onwards, the search becomes doubleended: not only for a critical understanding of reality, and how to change it; but also as continuous criticism of ourselves, and of the purpose which originally moved us. The acceptance of such an approach to life requires a certain maturity which is a rather smug way of saying that we need to have been lucky. Lucky enough to have acquired, from origins and experience, an ego which can accept the implications without disintegrating. The more UC11: page 130

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common reactions are: either to sustain the conviction by making the morality absolute, the stance dogmatic; or to lose faith in the higher purpose, and become just another piece of flotsam on the sea of life pulled this way and that by the blind purposes of natural drives, acting in their social framework. Against these two ways of failing, the challenge is to balance commitment with tolerance; ability to act with ability to doubt This returns us to our original question: why is it right to be working for sociality? The difficulty here is that the notion of sociality is so complex, so allembracing, that it almost defies description. By its very nature, it is inconceivable that the full measure of sociality could be taken by any individual human mind. Even a tolerably useful description would probably double the length of this essay which is why we have concentrated instead on showing its relation to other social forms. However, in order to give some sort of answer to the question, a condensed fragment of such a description will now be attempted. Sociality is an infinite concept This follows from the assertion that all real societies must lie somewhere inside the social triangle. The condition of sociality is never attained, but is always being attained: thus there are no limits to its possibilities. Thus also, the meaning of human activity lies in the struggle itself, not in the final goal. Sociality is a dialectical concept. Its meaning embraces both the macro level of social organisation and the micro level of the human mind. Embraces them in such a way that there is the closest reciprocal connection between both the change, and the rate of change, of each with respect to the condition of the other. Sociality is an historical concept Its origins lie in the fundamental evolution of human activity and human consciousness. They lie in the supercession of the old instinctive patterns of thought and behaviour which gave blind service to biological and communal purposes, by the chosen purposes and critical moralities of calculating beings; these changes presenting the possibility no more than that for the conscious transfer of norms from selfmotivation to social motivation. Sociality in practice begins with the simple, unsophisticated idea that we UC11: page 131

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could be living for each other, instead of against each other. First, then, we see the elimination of tension between human beings, the end of continuous objective conflict and its subjective outcrops such as: (i) Mutual distrust and suspicion, which requires, in order to preserve the social fabric, legal and economic arrangements and the machinery to enforce them; (ii) Status rivalry, expressed in economic, social, physical, and intellectual terms; (iii) The reduction in order to make the comparisons required in (iI) of an infinite range of human qualities and talents to onedimensional quantities, which can then be discounted against each other; (iv) Failure of personal communications: reciprocal monologues, unconstructive criticism, point scoring, psyc.hological sad games, and the like. The end of our continuous conflict of egos will allow the free contest of ideas without self prestige being at stake. In such a climate, tremendous advances in understanding will take place, especially in those areas which are emotionally loaded . The present era of subjects and specialities will give way to a more integrated picture of the universe, and artificial divisions as between science and art, or natural science and social science will gradually disappear in favour of a whole human science, whose focal points will be human activity and human need. A most exciting prospect is the entry of increasing numbers of people people with their feet on the ground into a dialogue now conducted by an intellectual minority often slightly removed from reality. It is known that the socalled differences in intelligence, etc., between us are not due to any real limit of computing power, but to psychological barriers arising from our real life conditions. (And from onedimensional methods of comparison: the very notion of an LQ number is laughable.) The keying of ideas to. a broader social base, and their freedom from personality restrictions, opens the way for the evolution of true collective thinking, overlaying our individual thinking: enriching rather than replacing it The developments listed above will allow the rational fulfilment of some of our deepest emotional needs: perhaps above all a sense of immortality, through our identity with an ongoing whole. This without recourse to UC11: page 132

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religious myth, or egoistic personal salvation. Parallel with these changes in the realm of ideas will come changes in practical life. The cornerstone of these will be a new frame of reference for human activity. The distinctions we make today between work, learning, art, pleasure, etc., will lose their meaning. Enforced and alienated activities of all kinds will disappear, as also will the unconscious repression of natural desires. Socially necessary activity will, by definition, be desirable activity to the conscious self. For the greater part, its form will be such as to harmonise also with basic human drives. Where this is not so, the selfdiscipline of the rational over the homeostatic norm will be consciously imposed and consciously experienced. Under cooperative conditions different abilities will add to and complement each other, rather than discount each other. In the scales of comparison, ninety sits badly against one hundred; in additive terms the grand total is as dependent on the least as on the greatest: all make their contribution. More vital still is the victory of quality over quantity. The comparison of, say, a carpenter and an architect in status terms robs both of their essential qualities, and human society of a dimension. The death of work as a separate and unpleasant activity will link up with the ending of mutual distrust to meet other radical changes. The whole system of economics is no more than a range of devices aimed at generating confidence. Enough confidence to allow social cooperation to continue in a world where we live against each other. When society is cooperative in its essence, both economic systems, and the overblown science which serves them, will be reduced to logistic exercises. Commodity man will disappear. Human activity of all kinds will serve real human needs, not artificial needs created for economic purposes. We will gather or factor resources according to our abilities and inclinations; distribute them according to our tastes and needs; relate to them by use rather than by possession. In some cases, the intelligent use of resources (in the widest sense) will produce abundances; but universal abundance could exist only in a world where struggle against the environment had ceased: an unreal world. Resources available in abundance present no problem to any UC11: page 133

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social form. One of the most distinctive features of the kind of society we are describing will be the distribution of those resources which arc not abundant Even a subjective socialism conditional on abundance is unworthy of the name. For real, possible societies approaching sociality, the condition is unnecessary. Personal relationships will undergo the most profound changes. In place of the intense confines of the nuclear family (binding two adults so tightly that one or both of their personalities are often crushed), and the alienated distance between other adults, larger, looser personal groupings will allow people to relate to each other over the whole spectrum of human need, from solitude to sexual ecstasy. The relationship between the and that member of the group might be now close, now far; likewise for all other possible relationships the dance of life, as it were. The authority and status complexes of the present culture, often also mirrored in the family, will give way to a truly egalitarian, and mutually compassionate, social unit; the basic building block of any wider democracy. Women, perhaps, will have most to gain from the new relationships: the extent to which women are bound, exploited, and denied fulfilment by modern society and modern marriage has been made clear in recent literature. For children, the changes will be equally important: the opportunity for stable relationships with a number of adults; the end of the division between family responsibility, seen as a shell to be broken out of, and social responsibility, seen as a waning myth in today's society. And so on, well beyond the scope of this article. Communications will be transformed. The true personal contact between minds and ideas, which we first spoke of, will find its counterpart in the wider flows of information and understanding. The media, ... :written, spoken, visual, will no longer be instruments of manipulation and coercion not even in defence of the culture itself. Neither will they be used, as at present, to create an unreal escape world side by side with a real, depressing, unchangeable one. The communications of that time will reflect what is, and always was: a single world, containing both realities and possibilities, and the power of human beings to unite them through real activity At a fundamental level, we can distinguish four types of communication: bits UC11: page 134

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of information will be devoured hungrily; models of understanding will be considered thoughtfully; values and their implied norms will be examined ruthlessly; moods will be received sympathetically. As a higher level, collective understanding will over lay its parts, as we have already suggested. Likewise with the collective morality (purpose), and the integral mood. Indeed, if the essence, the spirit, of the entire culture exists anywhere, it will be in these lines of communication. It is now hardly necessary to speak of democracy. To a large extent, democratic communication is democracy. The members of the smaller social units we considered will be both informed and concerned. The present gulf between private lives and the social world will not exist The numbers involved, and the practical arrangements, will ensure even if the group is close to subsistence level that no single individual is so continuously tied to the wheel (or the sink!) as to become a vegetable. Living, loving, learning, deciding, will be integrated, and they will be everyone's business. Each group will be actively generating communication with the wider culture, such structural organisation as may be required will be based on five key principles: right of withdrawal, willed consensus, ascendent selection, specific delegation, instant recall (More of these terms later). However, the significance of these will be overshadowed by the fact that people will be living for each other. Relations with other cultures will be based on the principle of relative morality tolerance will be the key. There will be no geographical/spatial boundaries: each culture will command the voluntary loyalty of those who choose to support iL Where this enlightened outlook is not reciprocated (though it is doubtful if such social dinosaurs could have survived into the era we are describing). attitudes will be nonviolent and constructive up to the limits imposed by survival. The level of technology may be very advanced or quite modest: the path chosen will depend on ecological rather than social; priorities. Conflict with the environment will be continuous, as it must be for all organisms. It is also reasonable to suppose that sometimes as now we shall be losing the ecological struggle. The notion of a tamed universe is a myth, short of the infinity point. However, we shall at least not be adding to our troubles by wanton despoliation. The principle of tolerance will apply downwards as well as sideways. Enlightened struggle will be tolerant of all lesser forms, subject to the requirements of survival. After all, our UC11: page 135

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heroes know the) may find themselves amongst the lesser . creatures one day. . . . 1 A muddy glimpse of sociality, then. Or rather, of a real society somewhere approaching sociality. We can now say: If it is right to work for an infinite concept; a concept which, by its nature, needs always to be criticised, modified, improved a concept which has built into it the very quality of tolerance that the principle of relative morality demands ... If it is noble to work for a cause which is the.integral of all causes historically COl side red as noble . If it is good that the active pursuit of a or any of the causes which are the limbs sociality, has been noted to raise those W] struggled to the heights of human esteem and selffulfilment . If it is proper to oppose tyranny; if it is correct to banish alienation. If it is doubly] worthy to strive for the one society which satisfies" both conditions. . . . . . ' If it is wise to seek that human state which can so know itself, and so regulate I itself, as to steer a good course: the course most likely to avoid both self destruction and ecological disaster . If it is desirable that human beings should live for each other rather than against each other, and in so doing create a higher unity which gives new dimensions of meaning to the lives of each . .. then our cause is worthy of our work. WOODY Woody's essay will be continued in the next Undercurrents.

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49-54 REVIEWS THE DISPOSSESSED, Ursula Le Guin, Gollanz, 1974, £2.80 THIS IS a science fiction novel. It is also a 'Utopian vision of a working anarchist society. Most other Utopian writing has been set on this world: either pessimistic, as with the destruction of Aldous Huxley's lsland" society by a modern state; or optimistic, as with William Morris' vision of a future decentralised England in News from Nowhere. This anarchist society is set on another world, Anarres, and is shown as developing, not perfect. The heart of this society is expressed in its members consciousness, which makes the novel and ideal form for portraying it. The physical setting: twin worlds, like the Moon and Earth, but of about equal size, Urras, the more settled world, with a billion people in nation states, is a green fertile planet. Anarres, settled from Urras, with only twenty million people in a worldwide anarchist network, is a dusty, thin aired planet with few native plants. The permanent colonisation of Anarres about 170 years before the action of the book was by people from all states of Urras, followers of the anarchist philosopher Odo. Organised in an international federation, they were given Anarres on which to set up their own society. Since the time of this settlement, no one from Anarres has returned to Urras, but eight times a year freighters from Urras come to Anarres: 'they brought fossil oils .. , electronic components ... a new strain of fruit tree or grain for testing. They took back to Urras a full load of mercury, copper, aluminium, uranium, tin and gold ... The division of their cargoes eight times a year was the most prestigious function of the Urrasti Council of World Governments, and the major event of the Urrasti world stock market In fact, the Free World of Anarres was a mining colony of Urras. The fact galled. .. " The new society of Anarres developed in this framework. We see Anarresti society through the eyes of the physicist Sherek, his friends and acquaintances. The novel is the story of Sherek's striving to live out his Odonian anarchist principles, and his development of a new kind of physics. It is also the story of how his consciousness as a member of that society leads him to an unpopular course of action, which he takes precisely because he feels responsibility. UC11: page 137

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': .. [he realised] that he was in fact a revolutionary: but he felt profoundly that he was such by virtue of his upbringing and education as an Odonian and an Anarresti. He could not rebel against his society, because his society, properly conceived, was a revolution a permanent one, an ongoing process. To reassert its validity and strength ... one need only act, without fear of punishment and without hope of reward: act from the centre of one's sou/': Ursula Le Guin's achievement is to have created a place and a people in which her characters are real. Sherek is a product of the ideology of his world and we see this world and Urras through his eyes. The most important part of Anarresti society is the way people relate to one another, and the possibilities opened up by their social organisation. The most reviled forms of behaviour are those summed up in the derogatory terms 'propertarian' and 'profiteer', together with the accusation: 'you're egoising!' The artificial language, Pravic, together with the education of Anarres. leads to a practice in which a person will say “the room I am using" rather than "my room". Every person on Anarres has a different five or sixlettered name, with no sex distinction implied. The roots of sexual oppression and repression have been removed. The language helps: "The language •.. lacked any proprietary idioms for the sexual act In Pravic it made no sense for a man to say he had 'hadl a woman/ the word which came closest in meaning to 'fuckll and had a similar secondary usage as a cursel was specificl it meant rape. The usual verbl taking only a plural subject, can be translated only by a neutral word like copulate. It meant something two people did, not something one person did, or had': In work, people join together, in selfmanaging syndicates, to produce what needs producing; these are joined in looser federations, and liThe network of administration and management is called PDC, Production and Distribution Coordination. They are a coordinating system for all syndicates, federatives and individuals who do productive work. They do not govern persons; they administrate production. II The feeling of mutual aid permeates Anarresti society. Someone has to take on the onerous task of mining the metals for Urras, but there is never a lack of volunteers for a year in the mines, as there is a sense of social responsibility; if the individual feels something needs doing, she or he will:1 do it As for the physical structure of the society, it is on a mainly UC11: page 138

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barren world, but the organisation of production for use leads to a satisfaction of people's needs. The mode of production is like an anarchistic alternative technologist's dream come true. When Sherek arrives in Abbenay, the largest city of his world, to continue h is physics research: "A cluster of dazzling flashes at the east edge of the city made him wink and S1!e dark spots for a moment: the big parabolic mirrors that provided solar heat for Abbenay's refineries. The elements that made up Abbenay were the same as in any other Odonian community, repeated many times: workshops, factories, domiciles, dormitories, learning centresI meeting halls, distributaries, depots, refectories. ... buildings were most often grouped round open squares, giving the city a basic cellular structure people walking, working, talking workshops fronted on squares or on their open yards . _ a small wire factory, a district laundry ... the district smallgoods distributory, a theatre, a tile works. ... No doors were locked, few shut There were no disguises, and no advertisements. I t was all there, all the work, all the life of the city, open to the eye and to the hand. " All through the description of Anarres, is something beyond the conventionally Utopian. The difficulties in getting children not to egoise are described; there is a class of people, tolerated, who wander, not forming part of any community. In Abennay Sherek has to compromise with an established physicist: "Sabul had ceased to be a functioning physicist years ago; his high reputation was built on expropriations from other minds. Sherek was to do the thinking and Sabul would take the credit .. So they had bargained, Sabul and he, bargained like profiteers •.. Not a relationship of mutual aid and solidarity, but an exploitative relationship: not organic, but mechanical. II Eventually, conditions became such that Sherek cannot develop his 'physics of simultaneity' on Anarres due to the dominance of the Establishment 'sequency physics'. A syndicate is set up to communicate with Urrasti physicists, and Sherek goes to Urras. Urras is an analogue of UC11: page 139

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our own world. Sherek goes to a prestigious university in a capitalist state, A.lO. He works there, but constantly comes into conflict with the alienated behaviour of people around him. In conversation with a representative of a centralised, bureaucratised socialist state, he is told why he was invited to AIo: "Why do they bring you here from the Moon, praise you, print your books, keep you so safe and snug in the lecture rooms, laboratories and libraries? Do you think they do it out of scientific disinterest, out of brotherly love? This is a profit economy, Sherek!" Ursula Ie Guin shows us Urras from the viewpoint of an Odonian anarchist, and at one small remove we see our own world from the same viewpoint At the climax of his work on simultaneity, when he has realised the principle of simultaneous communication with the other known worlds (readers of Ursula Ie Guin's earlier books will recognise the principle of the 'ansible'), Sherek is keeping all his notes in his head to stop the rulers of AIO appropriating them for their use and profit While he has been working in the university a war has developed in Benbili, an analogue of a thirdworld country, and AIO is on a war footing. Restrictions appear and a massive antiwar demonstration is planned in Nio Esseia, the capital of AIO. Sherek realises what his role is in AIO: "On his first night in this room he had asked them, challenging and curious, What are you going to do with me?', . He knew now what they had done with him. Chifoilisk had told him the simple fact They owned him. He had thought to bargain with them, a very naive anarchist's notion. The individual cannot bargain with the state. The state recognises no coinage but power: and it issues the coins itself. '1 Realising his misconceptions and seeing the situation as a good Odonian, he contacts the people he sympathises with not the ruling elites he formerly moved among, but the working people, socialists. One of them says to him: "00 you know what your society has meant, here, to us, these last hundred and fifty years? Do you know that when people here want to wish each other luck they say, 'May you be reborn UC11: page 140

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on Anarres/' " At the antiwar demonstration, Sherek makes a speech which expresses the feeling deep within him of the human possibilities realisable in the society he comes from, and of the qualities needed to achieve such a society: "If it is Anarres you want, if it is the future you seek, then I fell you that you must come to it with empty hands. Yo cannot buy the Revolution ... You can only be the Revolution. It is in your spirit or it is nowhere. n The demonstration is bloodily broken up and Sherek eventually escapes to the Terran embassy on Urras, where he talks to the Terran Ambassador about Urras, Anarres and the 'ansible'. This sets the action of the story firmly in our world's future. He says of his visit to Urras: " •. , I finished the work atlast •.. But the ideas in my head aren't the only ones important to me. My society is also an idea. I was made by it An idea of freedom, of change, of human solidarity, an important idea. And though I was very stupid I saw at last that by pursuing the one, the physics, I am betraying the other I am letting the propertarians buy the truly from me. n The contradictions of working in a society that is opposed to all he stands for have become clear, and finally we haVE Sherek's judgement of his visit and of Urras: ': .. there is nothing, nothing on Urras that.we Anarresti need! ... there is nothing here but States and their weapons, the rich and their lies, and the poor and their misery. .. There is no freedom ... I have been in Hell at last ..• it is Urras; Hell is Urras. II But the ambassador from Earth says of Urras: "To me, and to all my fellow Terrans who have seen the planet, Urras is the kindliest, most various, most beautiful of all the inhabited worlds. It is the world that comes as close as any could to Paradise. n The Ambassador's admiration for Urra, is understandable when she explains the history of Earth as the worst environmental disaster area of all, its inhabitants saved only by the help of the Hainish people from another world. We have here a new Utopia, a new view of human possibility, a devastating critique of our present society seen through the consciousness of an anarchist, and a vision of human solidarity and mutual aid. This kind of feeling can be the basis of an unalienated UC11: page 141

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science and an alternative technology; nuts and bolts are useful, but we also need a revolution in consciousness to transform this world. If we are not careful, all Utopias may have to be set on other worlds: Sherek speaks again to the ambassador of a desolate Terra: 'Then Anarres, as you heard me speak of it what would Anarres mean to you, Keng? n "Nothing. Nothing, Sherek. We forfeited our chance for Anarres centuries ago, before it ever came into being. n Gavin Browning

SPECTACLE SMASHERS Leaving the Twentieth Century The Incomplete Work of the Situationist International. Edited by Christopher Gray, Free Fall Publications. 1914. 8Q:>. TO REVIEW the writings of spectacle is to create a spectacle of the writings. To essentialise situation ism, to present it as a series of historical documents is to pass the last rites on theory which was, in all essence, located in action. The Situationist International existed from 1958 to 1969. In total it only ever had 70 members, and at anyone point in time considerably less, but the influence it exerted was fantastically greater than its numbers would suggest. Situation ism emerged from the postDada Lettrist movement, developing the lettrist critique of art into a total critique of society. Capitalism, either in its Western form or its statist Eastern form, has reduced life to a state of complete voyeurism. The consumption of commodities has created a passive living death. "Young people everywhere have been aI/owed to choose between love and a garbage disposal unit Everywhere they have chosen the garbage disposal unit" (Gilles Ivain, Formula for a New City, 1.5. I, 1958). "And yet everybody wants to breathe and nobody can breathe and a lot of people say 'we'll be able to breathe later'. And most people don't die because they are already dead." (Graffitti, Nanterre, 1968.) This they termed the Society of the Spectacle. Against the spectacle they proposed a revolution, the 'revolution of everyday life'. this was to be UC11: page 142

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built upon the philosophy of play and was to consist of the creation of situations. The event that brought situation ism to public notoriety was the 'occupation' of Strasbourg University in November 1966. Here a group of students exploited the general apathy and got elected into positions of power. From there, they embarked upon a programme, compiled with the help of the Situationist International, to distribute ten thousand copies of a pamphlet, On Student Poverty, having first announced their intention 10 abolish the students union once and for all. This pamphlet poured total scorn on prevalent conceptions of student life both Left and Right conceptions. Its contents) were adequately summarised by the judge at their subsequent trial: "Rejecting all morality and restrain these cynics do not hesitate to commend theft, the destruction of scholarship, the abolition of work, total subversion and a world wide proletarian revolution with 'unlimited pleasure' as its only goal." The Situationists' other infamous moment of significant influence was in the May days of Paris 1968. Situation ism was the main tendency from which the March 22nd Movement descended despite the situationists' walkout at its refusal to expel known Stalinists. But, as happened with the other spontaneous movements of that time, May '68 was to be the beginning of the end of the Situationist International. The next and final, edition of internationale situationniste did not appear until September 1969 and was entitled 'Revue de la section francaise de 1'1.5.' This contained their own analysis: "The dawn which in a single moment lights up the whole shape of the new world that was what we saw that May in France. The red and black flags of workers' democracy flew together in the wind. The axe is laid to the root of the tree. And if . to however small an extent. have emblazoned our name on the reawakening of this movement it is not to preserve any single moment of it nor to attain any particular celebrity. Now are sure of a satisfactory conclusion to all .w have done: the SI will be superseded. " As selected works the most important omission from Leaving the Twentieth Century is an excerpt from On Student Poverty. One could also have expected an extract from Vaneigem's Revolution of Every Day Life. These aside, it does very comprehensively cover the drift of situationist theory and is excellently produced, At 80p for 170 pages of historically UC11: page 143

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important material it is incredible value. Christopher Gray in his conclusion fails to tackle the outstanding questions: 'Has the 51 been superseded?', 'What could supersede the 51?'. In fact, Gray seems to have decided upon the minimum of historical, explanatory or analytic inclusions of his own. Although he includes a complete list of the membership of the Situationist International he omits a bibliography, or any mention of existing neosituationist groups in Britain or elsewhere. The analysis that he does offer is that the 5.1. "made the same mistake as all leftwing intellectual" they thought that everyone else was plain thick". Jean Barrot & Francois Martin, Eclipse and Reemergence of the Communist Movement, Black & Red, 1974, say that the 5.1. lacked an understanding of capital. John Berger in New Society (7th March 1975) says that the 5.1. lacked an understanding of tragedy. And the National Caucus of Labor Committees have their own inimitable understanding: The loose and program less anarchist ‘left cover' countergang on the SI model is ideal for the CIA for the recruitment of new agents, the launching of Psywar operations, the detonation of riots, syndicalist workers' actions (e.g. LIP strike), student power revolts, etc., the continual generation of new countergang formations, and infiltration, penetration and dissolution of socialist and other workers' organizations ... During the 1968 French general strike the Situationists united with Daniel CohnBendit and his anarchist thugs in preventing any potential vanguard from assuming leadership of the strike thus guaranteeing its defeat. In the US, Goldner and his Situationist International offshoot group Contradiction have been assigned to play the same kind of role: namely to stop the Labor Committees from developing into a massbased working class party." (New Solidarity, Aug. 28 and September:!;I: 6, 1914J. If this last somewhatdubious assertion contains any basis of truth then at least the workingclass of the U.S. may have much to thank the 5.1. for. Colin Thunhurst

UNDERCURRENTS 11 " ... this is that final magic moment in human history when we finally UC11: page 144

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become what we are to become." WHOLE 'PUBLIC EPILOG Whole Earth Epilog. Penguin, 320 pp, £1.75. The Last Whole Earth Catalog. Random House (Penguin in UK), 448 pp, $5.00. Public Works, edited & compiled by Walter Szykitka, Links Books, 1024 pp, £5.00. ‘We are as gods and might as well get good at it' Yes." THAT QUOTATION may sound familiar, but it's not from the celebrated Last Whole Earth Catalog, or from its new offspring, the Whole Earth Epilog. It's from the introduction to Public Works, a massive new volume compiled and edited by Walter Szykitka, whose 1024 pages recently landed with a thud on this side of the Atlantic. A better title for Public Works might have been The Whole Earth Encyclopaedia, for it represents an attempt to deal in depth with the entire, enormous range of subjects which the Catalog and Epilog have merely reviewed. The idea, says Stykitka, was to write "the ultimate howto book". "If you were lost in the wilderness, and had no other possession than that book, you would nevertheless be adequately prepared to survive." "It would take you by the hand and guide you along in clear, easyto understand language, with appropriate sketches and'diagrams, so that you could, if you so chose, finally come crashing out of the wilderness, with flags flying, in your selfmade Land Rover with four wheel drive, in a triumphant return to civilisation." It's not surprising that,as Szykitka readily admits, Public Works does not live up to so impossible a specification. Even to attempt to produce a Whole Earth Encyclopaedia , you'd need an Encyclopaedia Brittanicasized budget, an army of freaked out researchers, and a very long time. Having none of these, Szykitka has resorted to the expedient of assembling a large amount of alreadyprinted "howto" material, mostly from obscure Government pamphlets, hence the "Public Works" title. These publications cover with varying adequacy many of the areas which our putative Whole Earth Encyclopaedia would deal with. Some of the details in them are quite fascinating. Did you know, for instance, that according to a US Air Force manual on survival in the wilderness: "An ounce of 12% rontenone will kill every fish for half a mile down a UC11: page 145

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stream that is about 25Ft. wide ... Man can eat fish killed by this poison without any ill effects whatsoever."? You did? Oh, well, I didn't. Another sample, this time from the superblycomprehensive section on Tools and Construction: "HOW TO MAKE A HOLE IN GLASS. Place a piece of stiff clay or putty on the part where you wish to make the hole. Make a hole in the putty reaching to the 52 glass and just the size you want the hole in the glass. Pour a little molten lead into this hole and the piece of glass will drop out." (You knew that too, eh? What's a smart Alec like you doing reading a magazine like this, anyway?) But these official publications, by their very nature, can only deal with the world as it is, not as we would like it to be. For this reason, sections like the one on Transport and Communication are disappoint ing: there's a huge, 92 page chapter on car repair which, apart from being far too long, carries detail to the point of triviality. And there's not a word about alternative energy sources, lowenergy transport, or the possible use of decentralisation and telecommunications to reduce our need for transport. Of course the sheer amount of useful information in the book's 2 millionodd words. make it a work which everyone should have access to. But the "straight" perspective of the contents limits its effectiveness as an inspirational book of propaganda, aimed at promoting the healthy growth of a selfpowered alternative society. For my money, however, these flaws are wholly redeemed by Walter Szykitka's marvellous introduction, a longish essay which highlights a major failing of the Catalog/Epilog volumes namely, their unwillingness to spell out a coherent political and cultural framework into which their dazzling array of ideas and gadgets is supposed to fit. The Whole Earth Catalog sent shivers of delight down my spine when I came across a copy more than five years ago (my God, is it that long?). I was titillated, practically to the point of orgasm, by the prospect of "access to tools" (unfortunate metaphor, this), tools that could help create the practical alternative society which most of us, until then, had incoherently dreamed about. It was as if Stewart Brand and his friends UC11: page 146

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had taken Roszak's Making of a Counter Culture and turned it into a detailed recipe book. The Catalog was, to adapt the phrase of Buckminster Fuller, its godfather, an annotated Index to the Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth. No wonder it sold a million copies. But, as with all titillation trips, the excitement of the Catalog ended for me when I began to want the real thing. I wanted the Operating Manual itself, not the Index not even an annotated one. I wanted a Whole Earth Encyclopaedia, not the Whole Earth Catalog. More than that, I increasingly felt that the Catalog publishers owed their readers a plain statement of where they stood politically. Were they really naive enough to believe that simply by gaining access to the liberatory tools listed in the Catalog the "youth culture" could, almost without really trying, build an entirely new civilisation a new economics, a new science, a new technology, a new morality, a new politics, a new culture without any consideration of tactics, strategy, ultimate goals, and not least,how to overcome the opposition? Now it's true that the new Whole Earth Epilog is a little more explicit politically, but a little. There's an article by Odum on Energy, an excellent guide to China and an equallygood section on Soft Technology But apart from being more thoroughly written and produced than the Catalog, and apart from being, as you'd expect, amazing value for money, the book sticks to basically the same formula as its predecessors. What the Epilog needs is a clear, coherent, stirring introduction like Szykitka's. Szykitka believes that the "Movement" of 1968 (or thereabouts), which at the time seemed destined to sweep humanity irresistibly "across the threshold of human transformation", failed because "the vision of a new social order was imperfectly developed; it fell short of stimulating an amalgamation of causes that would have forced fundamental social change. " ... we simply need to go all the way ... taking the simplest of principles of interhuman relationships cooperation and applying it to every level and aspect of human society. Going all the way means not dissipating our energies in an endless effort to change the .existing social system ! ... but UC11: page 147

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beginning to create. a new system I altogether." I Such Utopian ideas are not new, Szykita concedes. But they answer a deep I seated human need, a need which is only now capable of being fulfilled. Why now? Because technology has advanced to the I necessary level of sophistication; because communications can now allow everyone to cooperate easily; and because if we don't make Utopia work now, it's oblivion for us all. (I Yes, I believe this is it". Szykitka concludes in a lyrical final paragraph, "that this is what we have all been waiting for, that this is that final magic' moment in human history when we finally become what we are to become. Some may call it a revolution. But I believe revolution is really the wrong word for it. because what is happening today has never happened before and will never happen again. And when it is over, we will find ourselves on another, and higher, plane of existence, with effects more profound than those growing out of the first glimmerings of intelligence in humans uncertain millenia ago. We will finally catch sight of a vis ion of our true potential. We will see that we are the most important determinant of our own future and that we can become , whatever we choose to become. We will I see that the vast energies of our universe are available for our use, to create for ourselves an eternal existence of limitless freedom. 'We are as gods and might as well get good at it.' Yes ." Godfrey Boyle

YES, BUT WHAT NOW DR. ILLICH? MEDICAL NEMESIS, Ivan Illich, 1975. Calder and Boyars, £1.25 paperback. 'The medical establishment has become a major threat to health ... But it is only a matter of time before the majority of patients find out what epidemiological research discovers: most of the time they would have UC11: page 148

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been better off without medicine. " NO IFS OR BUTS or qualifications and nothing but nothing in the way of solutions. In short, Ivan lllich in full and characteristic pursuit of his current quarry the doctors. Now as lllich is at some pains to emphasise, he is not particularly interested in health care as such; for him it is just one further illustration of the way in which industrial institutions produce unwanted sideeffects and begin to obstruct the purposes for which they were created. Just as his previous targets education and transport (reflect the inequity and nonfeasibility of industrial society, so too does contemporary medicine. In just one respect, says Illich, are the activities of the medical profession special: "Since medicine is a sacred cow, its slaughter would have a 'vibration effect': people who can face suffering and death without need for magicians and mystagogues are free to rebel against other forms of expropriation now practised by reachers, engineers, lawyers, priests and party officials. " The theme of Medical Nemesis is 'iatrogenesis', the technical (and, on occasion, helpfully euphemistic) term for doctorinduced illness. IIlich's analysis depends on the division of iatrogenesis into three categories. The first of these clinical iatrogenesis is the most straightforward: simply the pain, sickness and death resulting from the unwanted side effects of technical interference with the body in the pursuit of better health. Thalidomide is still the classic, most stunning example but also, by the very fact that it was an isolated even a misleading one. More typical of the extent of clinical iatrogrenesis is the sickening potential" of entering a hospital. "It has been established," says lIIich, "that one out of every five patients admitted to a typical research hospital acquires an iatrogenic disease, some times trivial, usually requiring special treatment,' and in one case in thirty leading to death. " An almost unbelievable one in ten of these episodes apparently stems from diagnostic procedures, while the doctors are still doing no more than tracing the cause of the trouble. The second level, social iatrogenesis, is the reinforcement of unhealthy industrial society through the choice of health policies. The arguments are more complex, but a simple example will illustrate the notion. Say UC11: page 149

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you work on a car production line. Your mind is being screwed up by the tedium of the work. Your job is driving you quietly nuts. Don't worry. Go to the doctor, get a sick note, have a few days off to recover. Or, as IIlich puts it, a shade more formally, "medicallycertified symptoms exempt people from destructive wage labour and excuse them from the struggle to reshape the society in which they live." Medicine helps people adapt to the physical and mental stresses with which industrial society confronts them and acts as a safety net when, from time to time, those stresses become too great. Finally, and most insidious of the three, is structural iatrogenesis the destruction of people's ability to cope with their own lives; with their pain, illness and eventual death. Hit is spawned by a cancerous delusion about life, and manifests itself when this delusion has pervaded a culture." The delusion is that good health is a commodity amenable to indefinite improvement Clinical plus social plus structural iatrogenesis add up to Nemesis: "nature's response ... to the individual's presumption in seeking to acquire the attributes of a god." But the gods whom man's presumption offends moves stealthily: for industrial Nemesis in all its forms is upon us but unrecognised. The marginal disutilities of our way of life accumulate while the benefits trickle slowly, irretrievably, down the drain. It's possible to quibble over the details of lIIich's case but not, I think, over the principles on which it rests and the conclusions it reaches. So where do we go from here? lIIich gives us no precise answers or, more precisely, no answers at all. The Centre for Intercultural Documentation IIlich's stamping ground and venue of the seminars that are his inspiration proves equally ethereal. A haven for those who wish merely to contemplate "the effects of social and ideological change on the hearts and minds of men" but a place of confusion and frustration for those who seek to translate the fruits of their contemplation into action. IIlich talks of personal decisions he has and has not made. Does this then imply that change within the community can come only through the UC11: page 150

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accumulated effect of a multitude of decisions taken at a personal level? He equivocates but the broad hint is yes. Complete breakdown, of the present arrangements he implies, is the precondition for some flip of consciousness that will show us the error of our ways, showing us the superiority of the bicycle over the motor car and of selfhelp over the ministrations of the doctors. If there is some other recipe for transition from a nonfeasible to a feasible society, IIlich makes little attempt to demonstrate it. Despite the generally socialist drift of his writings, he holds no particular brief for the Left. Indeed, when it comes to discussing China the one country where deprofessionalisation of medicine is already manifest (the 'barefoot doctor' scheme) he seems to go out of his way to carp and criticise. Medical Nemesis is not the best of IIlich's books. But if you're interested in the more oblique limits to industrial society, or in medicine for its own sake, it's worth persevering. Even the most philosophical passages assume reasonable clarity on a second reading. If on the other hand you have no particular interest in medicine, and are already convinced of the limits to industrial society, you will learn little. Read on ... but read elsewhere. Geoff Watts

IF GOD DOES NOTEXIST IS IT NECESSARY TO INVENT HIM? The Age of Plenty: A Christian View, E. F. Schumacher, 23 pp. The Saint Andrew Press, Edinburgh 3Op. THIS PAMPHLET originated as Schumacher's Lauriston lecture. given in Edinburgh two years ago. In it, he sets out a Christian ethical basis for his thesis that 'small is beautiful'. Schumacher's view is that we have a purpose in life that goes beyond the human in the words of St. Ignatius of Loyola: "Man was created to praise. reverence and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul", Everything is to be judged by how it serves or hinders this end. Now although this is a perfectly reasonable working hypothesis as a guide to action it has a fatal weakness: most people no longer believe iL UC11: page 151

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We are all humanists now churchgoers included. But our humanism is a stunted growth. still overshadowed by the empty husks of a dead faith. Schumacher is right to say that we badly need some ethics to guide us, but he is asking for the moon if he expects us to adopt those of a traditional religion that we have rejected. I believe that we should be lookingfor a new conception of morality which does not need to be buttressed by supernatural sanctions. It is time, in a word, that we grew up. Where will we find such an adult ethic? One was suggested by Dr. Joseph Needham in a lecture to the University of Hong Kong last year: "It is just here that Chinese culture may have an invaluable gift to make to the world". I realise that this idea may upset those readers who are determined to see the Chinese as 700 million identical automata manipulated by a ruthless neoStalinist dictatorship,.so I will quote from Needham at length: "Nearly all the greatest philosophers of China have agreed in seeing human nature as fundamentally good, and regarding justice and righteousness as arising directly out of it, if men and women can have a proper training in youth, and a society which will bring out the best elements already fully 'potentially within them. The 'humanists' and rationalists of the Western world are saying something similar, of course, but they are always under the great disadvantage of being in revolt against the traditions of their own culture, which has other truths and insights to give to the world. In this respect the Chinese are not; therefore their message is more natural and undistorted, and carries greater weight." u •... One could even go so far as to say that never have the Chinese been more faithful to this doctrine, expressed as it is in terms of selfless service to others, to the people, than they are today. This then is the thought that I should like to propose on the present occasion if the world is searching for an ethic firmly based on the nature of man, an ethic which could justify resistance to every dehumanizing invention of social control, an ethic in the light of which mankind could judge dispassionately what the best course to take will be, in face of the multitudinous options raised by the evergrowing powers given to us by the natural sciences, then let it listen to the sages of Confucianism and Taoism. Of course these men of old will have no exact advice to give us on the choices we shall face in the use of techniques UC11: page 152

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which they would never for a moment have been able to imagine. But what matters is their spirit, their undying faith in the basic goodness of human nature, free from all transcendental elements and capable of leading to the ever more perfect organisation of human society. China has in her time learnt much from the rest of the world; now perhaps it is time for the nations and the continents to learn again from her." I would like Schumacher to answer this argument Occam's razor, remember, says that concepta non multiplicanda praeter necessitatem concepts are not to be multiplied more than is necessary. The burden of proof, therefore, lies with Schumacher. He must show that to put things right we need his hypothesis. Chris Hutton Squire

Communards inspiration The Journal of the New Alchemists, No.2, 132 pp, $6, from P.O. Box 43, Woods Hole, Mass. 02543, USA. . THIS BOOK size report is the best and most useful account of an alternative technology' research group that has yet appeared. The New Alchemists' last two years' work is described}covering sail wing windmills, Arks (as in Noah), aquaculture, selfsustaining agriculture theory, organic farming minutiae and, in great detail, the Backyard Fish F.,m. Full of photos, diagrams and poetry, the New Alchemists never lose sight of their original idealist aims. "It is our belief that ecological and social transformations must take place at the lowest functional levels of society if people are to direct their course towards a saner tomorrow." Their gardens are full of flowers as well as vegetables and their optimism of a better tomorrow created by people playfully taking control of the activities that support their lives is powerfully illustrated. Structures such as the Backyard Fish Farm are made so that the way in which they work is as evident to the outsider as is possible when dealing with subtle biological processes the Institute operates from five acres of Cape Cod suburbia which is unfortunately only available for another UC11: page 153

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two years. The group itself is an unusually well balanced mixture of biologists, office workers, writers and an engineer, numbering about ten, who live around and about Cape Cod in 'normal' domestic situations. This gives them the great advantage of avoiding the allconsuming experiments in collective living that interfere with the work of many other groups. Another factor which enables them to reach the dynamic level of operation not achieved elsewhere, apart from being dedicatedly organised is winter migration. The place goes into hibernation during the sharp Cod winter and the New Alchemists fly ecstatically south, usually to Third World situations. They return in the spring with new ideas, a refreshed world outlook (and, probably, pleasant sun tans). Organisation of the group is loose but selfdiscipline and individual enthusiasm is high: there is not much spare time. During the week visitors are discouraged and work goes on apace. Saturday is open day and the kitchen is a chaotic hive of activity as a midafternoon feast is made up of visitors' offerings and produce from the gardens. Explanations are untiringly and personally given on all aspects of New Alchemy to everyone who shows interest. All the jobs requiring mass muscle power are done on Saturdays. The love and optimism of the group soon rubs off and leaves the reader feeling spiritually uplifted and politically more determined. The humanity of their efforts comes across well in the Journal. It's a classic document of the practical progress that can be made by a small dedicated group; an inspiration to every enervated communard. Stefan Slippery

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55 Tether A Last Minute Word .... IN THE INTERESTS of Truth, and to redress the balance somewhat between the fat moneybags of Con O'Neill's 'Britain in Europe' campaign and the meagre resources of the antiCommon Market groups, we are printing the following excerpt from renegade Financial Times columnist Gordon Tether's pamphlet The Great Common Market Conspiracy, (published by the 'Get Britain Out' Group, 67 Upper Berkeley St., London Wl H 7DH at 25p post free). It is obvious that the referendum is a farce, and that our rulers have no more intention of allowing us to quit the EEC than they have of letting us decide anything else of importance. It's not often that Undercurrents shares a bed with even renegade Financial Times columnists and we know that many of the fellow travellers on the antiMarket side are every bit as repulsive as their opponents. Nonetheless, we think it wrong to say 'a plague on both your houses'. This may be quite appropriate at an election (Don't Vote, It Only Encourages Them as Peace News puts it) but this referendum is something different Our rulers have been trapped into holding it. To ignore it is to play their game, the tired old game of rule by Parliament. We do not expect the antiMarketeers to win the day but a big No vote will show our contempt for all men governing'. It will further weaken their already flimsy morale and strengthen that of radical groups of all kinds. It would be a tragic error to forgo such a moral victory simply because we haven't worked out a blueprint for a selfsufficient Britain, or we don't like Tony Benn, or whatever. So Vote NO on June 5, but without illusions! ProMarket campaigners of all descriptions Ministers and rankandfiIe politicians, the top brass of the Brussels hierarchy, leading industrialists, City tycoons and so on have mounted a massive campaign of distortion and exaggeration aimed at demonstrating that, while nothing but good can come from staying in the EEC, the most terrible fate will befall the British people if they should be "misguided" enough to elect to withdraw. Here are some examples of these fiction,. along with the related facts. 1. That the official figures show that in the first year after Britain's entry into Europe, EEC investment in this country soared to ",me £2.000 million. The reality is that this jump entirely reflected borrowing by Britain from Continental banks to finance the growing U. K. payments UC11: page 155

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deficit. The real story was that the flow of Continental capital into capital development in Britain was only a fraction of the movement of similar finance in the opposite direction. 2. That virtually the whole of the rest of the world including all the Commonwealth countries is wholly opposed to Britain's withdrawal from the Community and will accordingly be quite unprepared to cooperate in helping, us to .adjust ourseIves to the new situation should we disregard their advice to stay in. The reality is that only a relatively small number of countries can be said to have intervened in our EEC controversy in a meaningful way and they have usually gone no further than to .. y that they have lost their earlier enthusiasm for seeing Britain outside. 3. That withdrawal from the EEC would precipitate the collapse of the pound on the currency markets and thereby instantly plunge the country into its "worst economic crisis ever". The reality is that, as sterling is not dependent on EEC support and withdrawal would not produce any significant immediate changes in external payments patterns, there is absolutely no need to fear such an outcome except, of course, to the extent that proMarket propaganda excesses have the effect of generating unnecessary anxiety for sterling abroad. It is quite conceivable that, if it were made clear that advantage was to be taken of the country's escape from EEC entanglements to make a direct attack on the payments deficit through the use of import controls, the £'s fortunes would take a decisive turn for the better. 4. That, as there is no alternative" to the EEC, Britain's withdrawal would mean that a great curtain would descend round these islands, condemning them to gradual extinction. The reality, as already noted, is that nothing of the kind would happen because the If alternative" is already in existence and because the big opportunities for trade expansion will in future be outside Europe in any case. 5. That investment would languish, with unhappy consequences for the jobs of many workers. The reality is that, once the encouragement to concentrate capital development on the Continent which British membership of the EEC has been found to generate is eliminated, the level of investment in this country could well start going ahead again. 6. That Britain is in such a bad shape in the economic sense that she cannot afford to leave the Common Market however impressive the other arguments for doing so may be. The reality is that belonging to the Market UC11: page 156

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is one of the main reasons why Britain is finding the economic going so hard. It is essential, therefore, for her to escape at the earliest possible moment What makes the widespread use of such misrepresentations, exaggerations and sheer untruths so significant is that most of the people who are perpetrating them are well aware that this is what they are. They can be acting in the way they are only because they realise to use the words of Edmund Burke that "there is no passion that so effectively robs the mind of all powers of acting and persuasion as fear". It is true to say, therefore, not only that the referendum operation is being carefully stagemanaged to tip the scales heavily in favour of a yes vote, but also that immense efforts are being made to clinch the issue by frightening the voters into believing that only a yes vote makes sense. How is this extraordinary situation to be explained? Part of the answer no doubt lies in the fact that the belief that elitism and Parliamentary elitism in particular should always have the last say dies hard. But other very powerful factors are clearly also at work. And while one hesitates to use the word conspiracy, it is inescapable that those who see themselves as having a vested interest in Britain's continuing involvement in the Common Market are bending all their efforts in concert to seeing that their wish is satisfied without much regard to moral and ethical considerations. In short, if this is not a conspiracy it is a very good imitation of one. What the British public has to recognise is that, while there is little to be afraid of in coming out of the Market, there is every reason to fear the consequences of staying in. A fair weighing of the pros and cons of staying in the Market can only lead to the conclusion that, whatever may be true for the politicians, the big business interests and other manipulators, from the viewpoint of the public as a whole the case for coming out is irresistible. All the indications, indeed, are that the longer we stay in the EEC the more enfeebled will Britain become and the more exposed its people will be to the modern form of enslavement that which arises from becoming heavily dependent on foreign financial support.

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56 Advertisements SEED: THE .JOURNAL OF ORGANIC LIVING 8A ALL SAINTS RD. ,LONDON W.II. 01229 4723. The world is what we make it. We can fill our minds with the frantic reportage of a world gone mad, or we can strive to make that world a peaceful, natural place. SEED sUbjects include natural foods, ecology, selfsufficiency, alternative technology, natural healing and beauty care, organic farming and gardening. 25p per issue(monthly) ,£3.85 inc p&p for 12 issues. TWO SHORT COURSES AT EWELL Self Sufficiency • Friday June 20th 1975 10.00 17.00 A one day conference on making the best use of a small plot or garden. A Biological Approach to Soil Husbandry • July 7th 11th 1975 A Soil Association one week course, planned to provide a balance between a simple scientific introduction to soil biology and practical methods. A visit to an organic farm or market garden is included. Details of both courses from: Dr. A. Deavin Ewell County Technical College Reigate Road, Ewell, Surrey. Science for People is the quarterly magazine of the BSSRS. Its aim is to emphasise the need for a science and technology which will work for the benefit of all people. The next issue (No 29, available midMay) will be a special Women's Issue produced by the Women and Science collective. It will include articles on sexism in science, why girls don't do science, the hazards of home, the political implications of creches, some aspects of human relationships the laboratory woman,.food and nutrition. Plus the usual news, reviews and letters. Only Only 25p plus 5p postage. Science for People is available from BSSRS at 9. Poland St.. London W.!. (01 4372728)

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Conservation books SPECIAL OFFER Changing Directions: Report of the Independent Commission on Transport (reduced from £0.75) £0.20 NEW STOCK £ n.. Public Enquiry: An obJectOR handbook; J. Busby 0.40 people .. Power E. F. Schumacher 0.20 rhe Seventh Enem, (Observer reprint) R. Higgins 0.10 EnouSh Is Enough J. V. Taylor 0.60 "lelds, Factor6e ... WOfbhops TOnKMfoW P. Kropolkin/C. Ward (Ed) 1.95 U_a .. Abu ... of the Counlryslde T. JacksA;". 0.50 Conatlon In Practlca A. Warren IF. B. Goldsmith (Eds) 4.50 II'lana' Earth) 3.30 ielentlftc Tachno!OVf" ) Scientific Soc"1 Change ) American 3.30 rhe HUfMn Population ) 1.go Britain .. the World food oisi. I friends 0.15 losing Ground (2nd Itdn.) 01 the 1.00 ,1101..,.., .. "anual Earth 0.25 inlenslva Agrlcultura • the EnYlronmen' ICCAR 2.00 IUch Against Poor: Tha reality of aid C. R. Hensman 0.90 acllcal Building ot "alhana Powet" Plant. L. J. Fry 4.00 Olga.t 01 UK Energy Slall.Uc. HMSO 5.CO The fnlallgenl Radlcel'. Guida 10 Economk Polley J. E. Meade 2.00 Acca .. tor All: Tr.,.sportaUon .. urtJan growth K. F. SchaeflerJE. Selar 0.70 Brhlsh Tr.,.apor1: An economic ..... , trom Itta 171h Cafttuty '0 the 20Ih H. J. Oyos/D. H. Aldcroll 1.00 uw .. Admlnlstrallon Aalallnl fo PTolecllon of Iha Environment D. A. Bingham 3.00 The .. .,. In lhe Str_t: A poIaWllc on urbanl.m S. Woods 1.50 The Fat of the und J. Seymour 1.00 The Naw Vagalebla UC11: page 159

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Gro .. r. Handbook A. J. Simmons 0.75 Vaga",,"n Eplcurtl A. Thorn.. 0.90 food FOI fr .. (soft COYer) R. M.bey 1.25 On The looM J. & R. Russell Full 1.50 Tlma .. lhe RI.,., fl_lng: cOlour Grend c.n,on F. Leydet plctoriel 1.50 Gelepa",", Tha flow pt WUdna .. I: essays; Dlaconr)' E. Porter Ideal 1.50 Gelapagos, The Flow 01 Wlldnes. II: for Prospact E. Porter ) presents 1.50 For our latest classified stock list and order form, please !end a large SAE. Please send full payment including: P & P (UK orders up to £.1: 30%; ClC5: 10%; C5Cl0: 5%; over C10: free) and VAT (8% of P & P amount only). CONSERVATION BOOKS (U ), 228 LONDON ROAD, EARLEY, READING, BERKSHIRE Telephone: Reading (0734) 863281 RG6 1AH

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SOME Undercurrents STOCKISTS LONDON Housman's Bookshop 5 Caledonian Rd Kings Cross Nt. Grass Roots 61 Goldborne Rd, WH. Seed Bookshop Portobello Rd, WIt. Compendium 240 Camden High St. NWI. Haelan Centre 39 Park Rd, Crouch End. N8. Sunflower Friends Portobello Rd, WH. Paperback Centre 28 Charlotte St, WI. BSSRS 9 Poland St, WI. Friends of the Earth 9 Poland St, W 1, Moonfleet 39 Clapham Park Rd, SW4. Village Bookshop Regent St, Wet. Architectural Association Bookshop 36 Bedford Square, wet. Freedom Bookshop 846, Whitechapel Hill St, El Mandarin ,Books New College Parade, NW3. Robinson & Watkins 1921 Cecil Court (off Charing Cross Rd) WC2. Rising Free 197 Kings Cross Rd. WeI. \\ Cer"s 269 Portobel1o Rd, Wl1. C'entreprise l;::1f' Kinsland High St, E8. C"'lds UC11: page 161

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66 Chariog Cross Rd, WC2. Oillans University Bookshop 1 Malet St, WCI. Grotes 29b Homsey Rise, N19. NUS Environment Section 3 Endslei&h St, Wt. CAMBRIDGE Anuna Wholefoods 12 Mill Rd. MANCHESTER Orbit Books WhHtle St, M4. Percivals Peter House, Oxford St. Ml. Wheelers 36 Ann St, M2. Grass Roots Bookshop 78 Oxford'"Rd. M13. Bookflair Mount St, M2. On the 8th Day 11 Oxford Rd, M13_ EDINBURGH Better Books '1 F('1'Tst Rd, EH1. CARDIFF The Miskln St. Book Shop 19 Mi,;kin St. Cathays. One 0 Eight 108 Salisbury Rd, Cathays NOTTINGHAM Mushroom 15 Heathcote St. NG2. Conservation Society Portland Buildine Nottin&ham University, NG7. Nottinmam University Peace Society. GLASGOW AF &: J Barrett, 178 Byres Rd, G12. John Smith It Son 89 Otago St, W2. SHEFFIELD Rare &: Racey 166 Devonshire St. 53. BATH Searights Bookshop Ltd 9 New Bond St Place, BAI. BRIGHTON Symposium UC11: page 162

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12 Market St, BNl. Public House Bookshop 'H Little Preston St. DUBLIN Green Acres 4. Great Strand St.. D1. LEICESTER Leicester University Bookshop University Rd. LEt. Black Flag Books 1 Wilne St. BIRMINGHAM 632 Bookshop 632 Bristol Rd, Selly Oak, B29. Prometheus Books 134 Alcester Rd, Moseley, 813. Birmingham Pea.ce Centre 18 Moor St, Rinlway. LIVERPOOL Atticus Bookshop 31 Clarence St. News from Nowhere 48 Manchester St. L16. HULL Bogus 21 Prince's Ave, HU6. John Sheridan Ltd 19 Anlaby Rd, HUI. NORWICH Bristows 4 Bridewell Alley. NOR 02H. Conservation Books 28 Bearwood Rd Wokindlam, Berks. John Smith &: Son Ltd Stltlinl University Bookshop. Spice Island Osborne Rd, Southsea, Hants. Books &: Thinls 9 Oswald 81, Lancaster. The Other Branch 7 Regent Place Leaminlton Spa, Warwicks. Bookshop (The Fourth Idea) 14 Southgate, Bradford I. Alligator 104 Fisherlate, York. EOA Book 34 Cowley Rd, Oxford.

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SMALL ADS Undercurrents small ads They cost 2p per word up to a maximum of 150 words though bigger ads may be acceptable in some cases. Money must be sent in • advance. PRACTICALLY MINDED people wanted urgently to help with holiday programme for needy kids and supporting projects. Expenses and pocket money paid •• appropriate. Roger Crawford. 39 Briar Rd.. Kenton. Harrow, Mddx. WANTED: craftsmen/women with practical skills to squat in large country house in Derbyshire Dales. with ... view to permanent occupation. Retail outlets. for work nearby. Martin, Tel; Thorpe Cloud 364. PERSONAL AFFECTIONATE FEMALE companion required by lonely divorcee in early 40s nonsmoker, 25 35 preferably, wholefood, preferably vegetarian: baby OK. Hopefully for life. Interests: nature, ecology, organic gardening, music, walking, travelling, yoga, T.M. Write Box AF c/o Undercurrents. COMMUNITIES COMMUNE at present saving money to buY smallholding and evolve towards selfsufficiency seeks more members. Contact Fipp, 28B Polstead Road, Oxford. COMMUNE, Are you interested in possibly joining a group of people who are planning to buy a 25 acre estate in order to set up a commune? Our main reasons for wanting to live in a Commune are L to enable us to overcome the restrictions of living in traditional nuclear families or alone as single people. and to enjoy the social advantages of living in a larger social unit 2. to achieve some degree of selfsufficiency and 3. to enable those who want to, to work parttime at their profession rather than full time so as to be able to work on communal projects as well, some of which would have to be financially rewarding. Each unit will need to contribute about £5,000 to £10,000. Contact Peter Delacour, Westbere Court, Hersden, Nr. Canterbury, Kent. Tel: Canterbury 710604. TONY, BIOCHEMIST/teacher, and Teresa, Arts/Crafts, plus two children wish to join cooperative project, established or planning: Contact at 23 Poplar Grove, London W6, 01 603 3251. UC11: page 164

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NEW VILLAGES ASSOCIATION NV A Selfsufficiency on a viable scale. We aim at the propagation of autonomous villages of 500 to 1500 people, in family and/or commune groups, on as many acres. Organic farming, alternative technology, small industry. Advantages: social flexibility, numerical stability, mutual aid. Implications: participative democracy, decentralisation, agrarian reform. Affiliated to the Community Land Trust. Skills exchange network building up. We are interested in anyone who is doing their own thing, however small, and need members with or without relevant experience and with or without land or capital. Membership still only £ 1. For further details send SAE to Roger Hunter, 13 The Rose Walk, Newhaven, Sussex. PROJECTS OPEN lIN D, a Liverpool cooperative workshop has just rehabilitated twothirds of its building and needs people. Trades represented are: screenprinting, electronics, leatherwork and van driver, food coop, info service etc. We want to hear from anybody skilled who needs space or anyone interested in the projects e.g. conversion of ground floor into coffee OAR/ exhibition place. Write or phone: Open Mind, 39/41 Manesty's Lane, Liverpool 1. 0517091264,7087174, 708 0860 (Phones are cut off periodically). EVER Y RADICAL with any kind of income must pay CLAP 4% TAX, the Community levy for Alternative Projects tax on 4% of your GROSS income, minimum pledge of £1 every two months. If you want to help transform society by building a network of imaginative and revolutionary projects, pay this tax now. Send 14 1/2p in stamps for the latest CLAP Handbook. Or does your project need money? If it's communitybased, imaginative, concerned with the environment, consciousnessexpansion, improving communication between people or fighting oppression. Send for details of how to apply. CLAP 4% Tax raised £15,000 in its first year. CLAP 4% Tax, c/o BIT Free Information & Help Service, 146 Great Western Road, London W.II. (tel 01 229 8219). BOOKS HOP ELECTRICITY AND GAS Consumers Guide. Topics covered include: Deposits, Cutoffs, Rights of entry, Overcharging, Thefts from Meters, UC11: page 165

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Faulty Meters, Tenants Rights etc. 50 p. from Oxford Educational Systems, II Bardwell Road, Oxford OX26SU DON'T MISS Up Against The Law's latest Issue 8 contains wot the News of the World wouldn't print about the Mayfair vice racket and the socalled gangbusters, how the Gloucester cops spilt the beans on the M5, the adventures of Detective Inspector FitUp and lots more sordid tales from the dark crypts of the Old Bailey and the other H.Qs of the repression industry, Subs to UPAl for one year's supply: Rate for lawyers and professionals £6 pa. Specially reduced rate for dole queuers and the underpaid £2.50 pa. Overseas subs £7.50pa, Socialist Worker Litho have still not returned £300 financial grab from our pulped issue No.6, UPAl collective continues to appeal for solidarity and support. Please address all postal orders/cheques to UPAl 66 York Way, London NI Tel: 01 837 4194. SHELTER THATCHED COTTAGE "with II1h acres, £5,000. For details, SAE to Stevenson, Ballard, Blencolumkille, Co. Donegal, Ireland. ETCETERA TRAINEE GOVERNOR FITTER (gas) seeks experience with Methane Digester Construction and functioning. Nick Vanhear, 22 York Terrace, Cambridge. TOWER HILL FESTIVAL. Interested in setting up two week encampment on overspill estate and relate to urban survival? Help organise and run community events, workshops, parties, etc. Details: Chris Shurety. Community Centre, Tower Hill, Kirkby, Liverpool. THINKING OF BEEKEEPING All equipment. Send for list. Honey Producers, 66, High Street, Malmesbury, Wilts. BRAD'S SOLAR ROOF PLAN. Complete doityourself info (drawings, costings, suppliers, snags, plumbing, even the electronic control circuitry) UC11: page 166

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for the elegant canopy that made the New Scientist cover story of September 19th 1974. 8 months hot water (l26:, 52°C) for Ip/day; we've had over 21 kilowatts from our 60 sq.m. roof. And at 1;.8/sq.m., it's cheaper than tiles. No ripoff. 25p plus SAE from BRAD, Churchstoke. Montgomery, Wales. (Any surplus, we promise, goes to fund further AT research.) HEDGEHOG HAND CARDING and Spinning Equipment made to order for beginners and professionals. Handcarders, Drum carders and Canadian Indian Spinners. 1 try to keep prices low. SAE enquiries welcomed. T. J. Willcox, Wheatcroft, ltchingfield, Horsham, Sussex. COURSES MIDDLESEX POLYTECHNIC BSc and BSc Honours in Society and Technology. This fouryear sandwich course offers you the opportunity to study the natural and social sciences and their interdependence. You can enter with Alevels in any two subjects. The course provides an understanding of the complex relationships between science and technology, enabling you not only to understand your own place in contemporary society, but to work responsibly with the benefits technology can bring. Write or telephone for further details and an application form to: The Admissions Office, PO Box 40, Middlesex Polytechnic, Queensway, Enfield, Middx. EN3 4SF Phone 0 I 805 0892

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UNDERCURRENTS BACK ISSUES Magazines worth Pounds 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 handcrafted staples of the finest English steel! THRILL to the delights of our factfilled Guide to Sources and Contacts in Alternative Technology! DROOL over the DoitYourself windmill water power and solar collector designs! LEARN THE SECRETS of Heat Pumps, People's Radio, Phone Phreaking, and GasPowered Transport! ASTONISH YOUR FRIENDS with your intimate knowledge of littleknown underground installations! • BLOW YOUR MIND with the political theories of an alternative culture! YOU, TOO, can own these wickedlyhandsome volumes for a mere 50p. ($ I. 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 Y,p! Undercurrents 6 Heat Pumps I Alternative Electronics I Organic Living Experiment J DIY Windmill Design I Alternative Technology Sources Guide I Running Your Car on Gas I SmallScale Water Power! 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 consumptionalternatives 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 massscale political action to change." Undercurrents 7. Special Communications Issue Telephone Tapping & Mail Opening: who does it & how I A Phone UC11: page 168

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Phreak's Confessions I The Government's Doomsday Communications Systems I TV Cameras Spy on City Streets I The People's Radio Primer I Switchedon Uses of Ham 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 intelligencegathering tool is the printermeter. This device, when attached to the equipment assigned to your telephone at your local exchange, prints out a tape of every number dialled_ n "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 Multiblade 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 II Undercurrents 9 Special Feature on Nuclear Power Dangers. Eddies' 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 Analysis of Nuclear Power I Nuclear Proliferation Perils I The Terrorists' DIY ABomb I Uranium Supply Shortages, .. PLUS: Nuclear Blackmail has it already been tried? I Bunker Secrets debunked I Solar Collectors: product review I Nature et Progress Conference in Paris: full report & photos I Hudson Institute Critique I Can HomeGrown Food make a Significant Contribution? UC11: page 169

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"When one source, solar power is a good example, i$ 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. n "Ephemeral figures, quietly 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 lowcost DIY Design I Towards An Alternative Culture: Part I I 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 economicallyviable installation is a wellinformed DI Y design using readymade 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." To make sure of your own, personalised copies of these scintillating back numbers, just fill in the subscription form in this issue, or write direct to Undercurrents Back Issues, 11 Shadwell, Uley, Dursley, Gloucestershire. enclosing a cheque/Postal Order for the appropriate amount. Do it now before it's too late! [Undercurrents Numbers I to 5 are sold out, When reprints are available, we'll let you know] .

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