UnDERCURP- Alternative lecnnotogiiss t ut t - d c t ~ y and Cii y - L~n. /s t i f ying - 3 Medicine* Dl Y Biofeedback* NewBehaviour in the Commune* Wind Power Electricse CEGB Bias* PIUS News, Reviews ft more.. . number

 FESTIVAL

OF I DELIGHT

COMTEK 75

Special Report

EDDIES. The Usual Brewof News, Scandal, Eddie Reports - and now introducing Froth

* , ',

LETTERS. Your chance to get your own back on us. * , % .

WORKERS AND THE WORLD UNITE. Workers at Lucas Aerospace are demanding the right not only to work, but to work on socially- desirable 'alternative technologies'. Dave Elliott takes a look at the background to this encouraging initiative, and examines the prospects.

CRABAPPLE: TWIN OAKS COMES TO WALES. A new community has been set up near Shrewsbury by a group which intends to put into practice some of B F Skinner's behavioural theories in an attempt to avoid the conflicts which have divided many other experimental corn- munities. A member of the group describes how they're going about it.

BIOFEEDBACK. Elmer Green looks at what biofeedback means and how it can be used, and tells of the extraordinary feats of Jack Schwartz and Swami Rama in achieving control over bodily processes normally regarded as involuntary. Plus: a simple but effective do-it- yourself biofeedback device.

COMMUNITY TECHNOLOGY. Karl Hess describes how Community Technology Inc is trying to promote small-scale, locally-controlled techniques for food and energy production in adeprived area of Washington DC.

COMTEK FESTIVAL : SPECIAL &PAGE REPORT. News, pictures and comment about the happenings at Britain's second Community Technology Festival COMTEK-75, which took place in Bath in August. . TOWARDS AN ALTERNATIVE CULTURE. In this third part of his '

extended essay, Woody examines the concepts of the subjective group and the objective group and suggests how the former might evolve , A

' . %

towards the latter. ., : % . . . ,' 7 &../. 3 T , t j J j ,..;'?, 44

BAREFOOT IN THE SURGERY. Dr John &ad& renegade in the Illich mould, talks to Chris ~ u l t o n - ~ q ideas, about the need for neighbourhood 'lifeB centres Medicine, an anti-establ ish ment medical magazine he proposes to set up.

~+ - :

REV I EWS. The Red Paper on Scotland, Cal&us, ~kal hqmeworlts. Handbook, Transcendental Meditation by jack Forem, The 5urv/vui/sts. by Patrick Rivers, and World Energy Strategies by Amry Loving. PLUS The Battle of the Bubble, a totally biassed ~evierf'f?) by ~ e t e i . ,

Harper of Class War Comix No 1: New Times, by Cliff Harper who is no relation.

WIND POWER Part I I : Electric Light Orchestration. Godfrey Boyle describes how to wire up the dynamo and the associated electrical devices required for the Undercurrents - LID Wind Generator d v i b e d in the last issue. PLUS wind power bibliography and Wince Wincharger product review.

CARRY ON SWITCHING. In spite of strong evidence that Britain' already consumes far too much electrical energy, and that centralised power stations are responsible for a major portion of the energy we waste, CEGB planners seem unable to contemplate even the slightest reduction in electricity demand. Their biases show through clearly in the papers presented at a recent private CEGB symposium on Long Term Studies. Godfrey Boyle puts some of them under the magnifying glass.

UNDERCURRENTS is published Bi-monthly by Undercurrents Limited, 275 Finchley Road, London NW3 6 LY, England, a democratic, non- profit company without share capital and limited by Guarantee. Printed in England by Prestagate Ltd.. Reading. nte&tionai~tandard Serial Number 0306 235

OUR ADDRESS. At the moment, Under- currents is in a state of semi-decentralisation. We still don't know what's going to happen to our office at 275 Finchley Road, London NW3. At the moment we're using the place on-and-off as 'licensed squatters', but whether we will be able to negotiate an arrangement to stay there is still uncertain. Meanwhile, daytime, weekday telephone calls to our London number (01-794 2750) are being intercepted by the Post Office (officially) and callers are being referred to Uley (STD Code 0453 86) 636. This is the phone number of our permanent office at 11 Shadwell, Uley, Dursley, Gloucestershire. From now on, all communications about general editorial matters, features, subscriptio and distribution should be addressed to Uley. Communications about News and Reviews and Advertising can still be sent to 275 Finchley Road, where they'll reach the people concerned a little more quickly. (But don't worry too much about sending stuff to the wrong address: mail is forwarded every few days from both addresses to the appropriate people).

SUBSCRIPTIONS cost S2.50 sterling ($6.50, or equivalent in other currencies) for -six issues posted by second class/surface mail to any coun- try.

# SUBSCRIPTIONS TO THE UNITED STATES, CANADA AND MEXICO cost USS7.50 and are sent by airfreight to New York and posted from there by aecond class mail. Delivery takes 3 to 14 days. &freighting is only economic if as many subscribers as possible use it. so we cannot accept surface mail subscriptions to these countries. Our US mailing agents are Air and Sea Freight Ltd., 527 Madison Ave, Suite 1217, New York NY 10022. Second Class postage paid at New York. NY.

COPYRIGHT.. The Copyright of dl articles in u n h - e n t s blows un!Lc-tab Limited, unless otherwise stated: they must not be reproduced without our permission. But we wil wi l l normally give permission for our material to be used, without çharge for non-profit pur- poses, on condition that Undereuroento is credited.

CONTRIBUTIONS. We welcome unsolicited articles, news items, illustrations, photographs, etc. from our readers. Though every care is taken with such material, we cannot be respendble for its loss or damage, and we cannot undertake to return it unless it is accompanied by an approp- riate stamped envelope addresse,d to tile sender. To make life easier for our typewttexs, manu- scripts for publication must be typed clearly on one side of the page only, with double or triple spacing and at least one inch margin on each side of the type. OK?

CREDITS. Undercurrents is produced by number of people. There are only two

paid staff, one full time, one part time. The rest of us work for nothing in our spare time. Here, in alphabetical order, are the names of the people most directly concerned in putting the magazine together. Godfrey Boyle, Sally Boyle, Duncan Campbell, Peter Cockerton, Pat Coyne, Tony Durham, Dave EUiott, Richard Elen, Sotires Eleftheriou, Herbie Girardet, Peter Harper, Chris Hutton- Squire, Martin Ince, Barbara Kern, Martyn Partridge, and Peter Sommer. Other people without whom Undercurrents would be more- or-less impossible include: Graham Andrews. Gavin Browning, Ollie Caldecott, Charlie Clutterbuck, Brian Ford, Ian Hogan, Roger Hall, Cliff Harper, John Prudhoe, Dieter Pevsner, Nigel Thomas, Geoff Watts. Martyn Turner, Joy Watt and Woody. And of course every one we've forgotten.

HELPERS: If you're interested in helping on Undercurrents in any way write or phone for details of our weakly meetings.

station, action at Win could potentidily brin whole prosramme grin

our case. The first of these

twenty cars set off from Hey- also disturbed a sham, headlights on, barrels of radioactive waste promi entlv displayed, and m a week we turned terrorists aboard nervous sober business of clutching their smoke bo and reasoned deba When we got to Windscaie Thursday a group we carried out a terrorist

police surveillance. There was future o f their resort under world wide rush to nuclear fedred, and there that

ade with a 'Death March'.

ade up to now i s discounted, faceted attack on nude station will still n o t be power, comprising loca ble of breaking even. An national lobbying, a su

support, direct action whe upset the nuclear applecart. necessary. A crucial part o

A container of radioactive à Two operators have been Secondly, it i s likely to be a t t h e campaign i s t o press fo products was sent to injured by the beams of least four years before Hey- alternative energy policie Romania but the receiving large accelerators. In one sham goes critical (if, indeed, The response o f the p laboratory did not have case a physicist WAS that is technically possible, to Nuclear Week has been suitable equipment to partially blinded; in the which some CEGB engineers encouraging. The local peopl. handle it. With CEN other an accelerator had doubt). Thirdly, we feel con- who have to take the dliegedl agreement, the container continued to operate fident that we can stop any 'acceptable" risks of living was sent back to Frince, because the safety move to put other installations next to large nuclear plants marked as an empty mechanisms had been on the Heysham site. We will arc'uneasy, and becoming package to simplify short-circuited - - a collaborate with other groups more 50. Local councils and

the CEGB for nuclear sites. , electruntidear establishmenu Since the number of possible The response of' the statu- sites is limited, action by local tory bodies has been less

0 The door of a c groups could place a severe satisfactory - though p r e d i ~ check on British nuclear devel- table. The CEGB has resoluti

boycotted our public debate and refused to answer questi

safe dose. I t is not yet known what happened to them. Dermatitis, including one case necessitating a skin graft, blood abnormalities

m the roof wsil be stored water tanks and a he.

dmill, though wheth e used to generate el

y or to p i oduce heat for enition i s meas- on

show called Ecohouse startin late this year or very earl een contacted air next and - welt, i t 's inte of the upper storey window

A two-storey dereli

a crumbling mansi hasis on food produci

The Ecohouse project will probably cost £20,000 The site was expensive at £9.000

this what we wan

rage you to burn 1OkWh of enthusiasm.

etres on one-

resources of the AT wo windmills will repiice cars, solid brick and the upper didn't seriously expect much both orthodox and frea pools, and yachts as status eve! 9". The slate roof is from thc telly, did you? and with a good deal of symbols and someone else presently in a poor state, and work being executed by Geoff will talk darkly o f infringed will have a BRAD-type solar

rant himself. The ITV net- building regulations, privilege, collector. The whole house Ecohouse wil l be produced ork audience will watch, and, no doubt, a threat t o will be put in a cocoon of in- andpresented by Brian True- rt ly out o f curiosity, partly decent civilised moralitv. sulation - 6" on the roof, 4" man, andis beingresearched

ut o f envy, and partly because Nevertheless the technical on the outside wall surfaces by Polly Bide: Granada TV, they'll learn how to be that solutions evolved in Eco- plus wooden cladding (the Manchester M60 SEA, bit more self-sufficient them- house may well turn out to weatherboard principle), and 061 - 832 7211 ex t 719. selves. have far-reaching political

That's the intention ..- implications. BRAD was a therebll be as little cheating as failure in that Robin Clarke's necessary in order to get the blueprint for a community series working. Don't look for linked by AT and completely any heavy philosophising- self-sufficient wasn't totally the Grants are nice ordinary realised. But in terms o f tech- ueople who want a 'nice' home nical and social experiment, are the plans of govern- i s now awaiting approval for i t s but don't want to change their not to say propaganda, BRAD eaders o f Undercurrents £3 million scheme. life-styles completely. Producer has been extremely valuable, 10 will remember Dave Elliot's The proposal i s for 15,000 and presenter Brian Trueman even i f the participants now description of the pitfalls o f men and women to do "corn- i s unlikely to stare heavily at feel uneasy about past history. state-run 'Back to the Land' munity work" in areas of Gurus of Our Time and ask Ecohouse has a good chance schemes. The old Land Resettle- severe depression. They would heaningfully about the of being another such exercise mem idea i s not yet ready for be paid just a little more than Implications For Society, but - Don William's ideas look resurrection, but they're work- unemployment benefit or we got the impression that he exciting and Granada's produc- ing on it. social security. knows the implications are tion team have the AT 'bug' The latest proposal from the In this way, cheap labour is there and they'll be implicit, even i f total messianism has Manpower Services Commission, obtained by exploiting the un- I f vou know what keens the vet to surface. Thev have nart of the Deuartment of Em- employed to do necessary hs)uje w.irrn anJ ht~crc the 3lic.iJ\ uei'ned tht-'r positi.~ri pln\incnt ', ¥~o-:;~llc-. ; t ~ n s i - ~ i . i work, r ~ t h e r than o\

a c ~ t o n ' . T n i Ci:n-imi>>ii,n. p ~ \ in^. nornidl r.ires. Tlu-ic e a bit more than smugness ibes - no mere product parade which has been desperately would be no job security -

a la Tomorrow's World, no mounting training schemes and workers would return to the pretentiousness a la Horizon

Undercurrents'

In the last 18 months, a (the "War Book") which will fence section. A new circular released to the public .., . revival o f 'Civil Defence' deal with emergency organ- (Emergency Services 2/75) Government broadcasts work has gathered consider- isation in their area. Normally describes the plans the gov- would give the first indicatior able momentum. Recently, this would be done by the ernment has for distribu

' that war might not be

Bexley council in London 'Emergency Planning rmation through tile averted" and include - wait voted £77,00 for an emer- and his staff, who mu media in the event of nu i t - "references to the gency bunker. cover natural disaster an attack. I t discusses manip effectiveness of the nuclear

Eddies takes a look at some civil disturbances. The e tion of the media in deterrent.'' The second phase aspects o f renewed govern- emphasis is a little clearer in general: "providing contin eparatory Period would ment preparations for its own a recent advertisemen guidance to the press an some 3-4 weeks", while survival - and how the propa- Home (ex-Civil) Defence Col- broadcasting services on the ntry was placed on a ganda machine wil l work. ege at Easingwold, Yorks, publication of news and ting".

When the civil Defence which defines the problem as comment"; and the way in Finally, the Immediate Corps was given a peaceful "adopting the peacetime ser- , which people might react attack period - we get burial in 1968, many people vices to function in the major after an attack, from initial "saturation coverage by may have supposed that the emergencies of war and peace stunned apathy" to "more the media.. . repeating busy era o f V-Bomber peace". aggressive behaviour" - if advice on the warning system. scrambles, CND marches, and Clearly, TV and radio will there wasn't any government and measures to be taken for

round. Control o f the media survival o f individuals a families. . . This would

revent "defeatist and some 72 hours." arming rumours." We re told that "existing

eing revised", but that in -usually known as Emer-

Now, however, the o title is 'Home Defen The central section o f the

AND THE RED FLASH matically control 8 thousand sirens all over Britain. A pitching and failing bans signal would be the attac warnine. Red Flash also

The BBC's emergency From the control points, two knobs .- are located in allows spoken messages to be arrangements are ostensibly signals radiate to thousands police stations, fire stations, sent to receivers over the TIM part of the civil warning o f special receivers, using BBC control centre network - to police and apparatus in case of attack. ordinary telephone links. hospitals, etc. Ther government establishment AH transmitters can be even to all policemen in remotely switched to transmit particular area. Applica pre-recorded attack warnings, Occasionally seen in police as part of an emergency net- carrier receivers - smal work. (Reputedly, these warnings are now 8 years old).

The other part of the warn- ing net i s 'Red Flash' - which connects Home Office warn- ing officers at RAF radar stations and at the Air Defence Operations C Those (few) enthusiasts for to fail, was not the first at the attention of anyone in

lear power who s t i l l dismiss plant. Two days earlier a sim- authority. Browns Ferry incident as ilar though much smaller fire Also reported by the

installed throughout the bizarre an occurence to was caused in exactly the Tennessean was chief of country in large police e seriously as a threat to same manner. TVA's nuclear generatio stations and telephone ex- nuclear programme have Browns Fern ' s local paper, office, Jack Callioun's changes. The secret about the Ni^nville Tennessean, rc- mcnt that, so far as he

the use of candlc'i to I

Valley Authority, and the Flash i s never heard. as it Nuclear Regulatory Conimis- doing that", sdid Calho

(NRC) had not managed This i s believed l o b accidently set fire to d out why the use o f the stable door aft

-, for air checks had not number o f horses h

ing civil order" - apparently

specified, a l l TV and local abroad! One engineer spoke

radio stations would close of activities at the time of the

down and broadcasting would Paris uprising in May 1968;

be restricted to a single radio "Urgenl, secretive messages

programme consisting were sent to get a couple of

primarily o f news, official old wartime transmitters (low

announcements.. . with, for powered sliorr-wave) opera-

morale purposes, an entertain- tiondl. We did, they weren't '

men! element." used, but i f events in France

To cater lor WTBS, the had got worse (for the status quo) they would hdve been. But nut for broad- casting, as the power WJS too

below). In the post-attack period, regional governments might restart regional local

the Army have their own

radio with newsheets when large communications net-

possible - in the event o f an works, such as the Diplomatic

audience to listen. The mem- // Wireless Service, I can only

orandum then discusses surmise that "Dirty Works"

arrangements for gathering people would be dropped in

and selecting news and France. They were really

- This i s station WTBS, the propaganda, and finally the selection and training of tters were rou "suitable persons" to work for _ the re h massive switc for WTBS.

In the first of issue of REPSYCHLING, more extracts from the HO

Archway Road, LONDON N tive energy accounting is

the unborn ' is iust that - indescribdble.

all the vogue with the US tear Regulatory Commis-

Circuit, are shielded and laid tists, the N.RC, worried by separately, deeper than the poor reliability of i t s plants

The BBC has spent "several ordinary telephone cables. has started 'improving' the millions" of somebody's They run directly to radio plants' capacity factors by money on building themselves and TV transmitters, where switching away from the trad- a well-equipped wartime the incoming cables are itional basis of 'design capacity'

UNDERCURRENTS would shelter at Wood Norton termed 'deferred services' - a to a new concept called

like to thank a small, gineering Training Centre, code use to fob off inquisitive 'Maximum Dependable

articulate minority wh ar Evesham. The shelter, transmitter engineers who Capacity' (MDC). occasional titbits of in ep underground, i s fully wonder why so many well- MDC i s defined by the NRC

information are readily provided with TV and radio prepared circuits-are left idle. .,, as a plant's net output during

separated from redund studios and two "massive" I t is surprising that cables \,the most restrictive seasonal

mountains of instantly generators. The entrance nests have apparently been provid- conditions for condenser cool- cycled paper. Such infor incongruously below a to TV transmitters, as there ing. This normally occurs only

tion can often be vital curious office on t ere i s no intention of using for a couple of months at the

groups or individuals centre site. Under t em in a general war situa- height of summer but the

may be affected by t re many feet of co on. There are, o f course, apply the definition throu

criminate actions of and behind the thick steel other circumstances in which out the year. The net resu

company or organ of state. doors is a staircase leading protected circuits and trans- that the plant is rated lower,

Several articles in this issue down i o the shelter and its mitters may be useful. making i t easier for it to

are based on such informa- air-conditioned vaults. According to BBC sources, attain i t s 'capacity'. Says

tion. Obviously, we can't say Above Wood Norton, on many transmitters carry Comey, "it's like computing

which - but you're allowed the appropriately named enough fuel for three months a golfer's handicap solely on

to guess. We're grateful - and Tunnel Hill, microwave radio operation. the basis of a score he got dur-

will publish whatever such links the centre with sub- The Home Office circular inga New Year's blizzard while

reliable informdtion is sent, regional headquarters at (above) describes a BBC hung over". as soon as possible. Kinver, near Kidderminster, 'network of transmitters One power station designe

and to the Post Office throughout the country, to produce 821 megawatts h

ft his briefcase at a recent

Und

ENVIROFAIR BRIG NS

didn't count them. A warm

the theatre groups, perfor

groups spread their stalls, their ideas and better ways of living across the green acres of alia, with littering by throw

downland adjacent to Sussex confetti (shades of Alice's

University - while through Restaurant?). But dll charg

the day and evening a succes- sion o f theatre groups, comics and musicians played and per- formed for the kids and adults.

The eco-fraternity provided the main Envirofair section. Shows included the local and served with a writ. . , Friends of the Earth and which led him to jail the f

Conservation society, and th Socialist Environment and

through the downland nigh

he a forum dnci contact pa"' for groups and individuals become acquainted.

A FEW CHANGES in Un iterature will be a new currents should result fro nforrnation section. the readers meeting held DIRECTORY of source Comtek. More than f i f ty groups, and individuals i

on of interest in

could write a short column

vou stop? Please tell us at you think - more

r a n k l i n Road. BRIG1

YORKS - Leeds !Â¥mur S

fiends of the Earth, d l 9 LANCS - Nisei I c~guson. 21 Chatsworth Road, LAXCASTE

the nuclear fuel cvdc and an NORT1ll:MBERl.AND- Geol Watson, Church C o t t a ~ ~ ,

iiccount of the planned cliollenon. 11I':XHAM, Ni)rth~imberland ..- Monica Frisch. LGIS Informat

E umbreila shatt drives a Bo'i~h f^v dvndmo directly, though t 1 hren follnwine the . . ,-- . - - . - ~~~~

AN INTERNATIONAL the grid, and the impe packets per hour of positive discussion about minimum Windmill Competition w of any external load c ions would soon have 'em :dl charging speeds in our latest organised recently in Fran nected to the system. fighting in the streets. Undercurrents Wind by BIN1 and ANVAR, two Another entry that was Generator articles, you'll companies dealing with share our doubts that the sails inventions and patents, in ~ o u l d ever turn fast enough conjunction with Phase Zero. and on the frequency (f) with to produce a useful voitdge a weekly technical paper. which the charged 'packets' unless the dynamo were

Nearly 400 entries were are released into the air - specially rewound. Still, how received - a lot'of them, though the inventor suggests many designs have you seen frankly, cranky and badly that an output o f fixed for windmills that can be thought-out. But one or two frequency could be obtained hidden in a trouser leg? were original and ingenious, by controlling f electronically. Yet another odd proposal

Wind Charger 'Un petit prototype' is was for an inversion of the idea of a flapping wing aero- plane. As the wind blows, i t waggles two 'flappers' (you

version of wind to electrical pointed out, the proposal is energy. still far from being a practical

M Gitton's device, which proposition. I f i t works, nas no moving parts, though, it could have at least by varying the phasing

apparently works by injecting one environmental effect e flappers relative to

into the air stream electro- , other. With careful

beneficial social side-

of wire mesh. As they pass

he tense, nervy, irritable pour la Valorisation de la

traffic i s in this category why the machine should con The computer's main task is fine its attention to the LgTALE' TELEGRAM' to route telezrams correctlv address at the top of the

EARLY I N AUGUST the such an operation by the post Office proudly showed British equivalents of the the press round their brand- NSA new computer-controlled The system has elaborate

telegram retransmission arrangements for recording centre in Cardinal House, and storing telegrams,

Farringdon Road. Lond stensibly to deal with com- By a curious comcidenc nts and enquiries. A t any

three ddys later, on Aug e, the last 750,000 tele the naners were full of th ams to pass through the

to their destinations At the message. Unlike a telephone same time, it tells its call, d telegram can easily he what i t is doing, in auto analysed by a computer, and matically generiited r it would be easy to arrange These, we are told enable t for an 'automaticall) staff to keep a close watch on generated report' to pop up system operation and tele- in someone's office every gram handling progress But time a certdin nilme or ~ o r d there is no techniciil reason appeared in a telegram

r ~ ~ r

admission by the US Na ntre are held on m Security Agency that all inte ores. Since at prese national phone calls to 0 telegrams are hand1 from the United States a

HE WIND ERA n an average day, t Wind driven plant and its

(as we told you in UC7 a that the past eleven days' Association has gathered its application.

UC8) intercepted, recorded, traffic i s instantly accessible reports on earlier windpower ERA 75-36 Volume 3, and sometimes listened to. through the computer. In work into three volumes. Design and testing of There is o f course no addition, all telegrams are shortly to be published. Each wind-driven plant. immediate connexion stored for seven months on volume costs £1 - - though (Further information from between these events. One magnetic tape. Retrieval in you might get it for £ 1 i f D Warne, ERA, phone concerned telephones in this case is slower, since it , you have an ERA member Leatherhead 741 51 ext 391 .) America; the other, telegrams may mean getting a tape out friend in the electrical We're tired o f complaining in England. We cannot infer of the cupboard and that international telegram it onto a tape drive t

own conclusions. Of cou a free copy plopped on t

rveillance. But the fa mat we could write as

issue. Nudge, nudge.

ineton. Warwicks. have Would he like to take this v

TVpiracy is happening in a omated machinery. When the noise level on tt small way in the South of The convenor using the France. One village now has its own TV relay station, set up by a local engineer because of poor reception. However, they rapidly realised that they could also use the relay for programme origination. They aren't very radical about i t - the weekly unofficial spot in- 0 decibels - rather noisy cludes the mayor's account o f the past week plus odd local gossip. But at least the local gendarmerie are too sleepy to worry about the illegal transmissions,

A more serious and effective experiment took place at Levezou on July 8th. In the middle o f a play, trans-

abruptly returned material. The sourc been manufactured and

search Association wh being installed. There are liminary studies for chines up to 3 megawatts.

organisations, may need these that have convi be restricted." them there is money

The US WECS programme, made, provided the g the station normally acts as a you'reguaranteed a big, run jointly by the new paws of foreigner local relay for the main trans- attentive audience glued to mitter many miles away, any their boxes!

Leeds l:uturcs Centre arc holding a conference The Teilhard Centre for the Future of Man is L o u k i n ~ n u c l i further ahend - there is t o I 1 AITFRNATIVF T1:PUNOi Of;V AND holdinn its Annual Conference o n Saturday a tllree-dav conference at the Univci-sitv of " ~-~ - , THE FACTORY with special empllasis on th tober 18th at St.Pancras Assembly Rooms. ~ c w c i i s t l i u p o n Tyne from March 3 0 to Lucas Aerospace initiative at Bradford Colleg on Road. It is entitled SELF AND April 1 1976. It is entitled APPROPRIATE and the University of Bradford. Dates sue T V : CONFLICT OR COOPERATION. TECHNOLOGY FOR THE UK, and is November 15-16th. For more details phone r Joseph Needham and Ursula King arc organised by the staff of the University's Roland Chaplain at the Futures Cent; nong the speakers. Phone facu l ty of Applied Science, supported by I 05321459865. Leeds Future Studies C "tails: 01-582 9510. Intermediate Tecl~noloev Development Gr<

ng the possible session ideasarc: onal techniques and their future develc

impact sources of energy: and the

cided as we we nour, and the Dean of Bristol. Fu ~ii:ition can be obtained from the S I.A. l'owler, Ifenley Cotrage, Yatten

The saved seed planted t had 90Y germination, if not more The frost last weekend destroyed maybe 20% of that. Not bad for a frost-tender plant. Maybe the problem is partly culin- - . - - iry. I t is greedy to expect to eat Fiskeby V by the plateful, as one

st, if you want t o m

I daresay goats" cream

e and patience, but there are Since at times the future se precarious, it seems worthw raise a few plants for seed each

need at least a quart

f milk and what eItain disease conditions, it can question is. whether Taoi

fed direct to babies without only a sensibility or also a

tment, which cows- milkcanst , ience. !wen Needham say

real reason for writing is not Taoism is "free from all tr

that it involves a very direct con

Books on Taoism will describe

tory farm, it is more enjoya r all concerned if animals are he other hand, it may not, and

large and relatively expensive,

much from a goat). So you smooth out the peaks and

well seems to think it counts of consciousness is a traditional

that we all desite and strive fo will still need their concentrat tting from the cow: we skim it

So if your goats are out of r cooking with or for butter, and

how. Any fence, hedge, or wa! there is too :-.iuch butter it is

will not contain themwi is made into cheese (hard cheese planted a ten foot double row last

1 find Undercurrents more

se, Bookchin, and o ss to accept and "consume", something like tha utions to ethical, medical, sl

ons. How far the wo d technical problems instead is now "embourgeoise ing the engineers of our ow* mores cannot be shortly

have cut his in

because it is no longer fully d4

Anyone encouraged by S Lee's article (Undercurrents to start beekeeping, should see out a fellow beekeeper first. Y can't rely on the books - I wo never have got through my firs

must resort to the broad distinction mostly born in<he white collar

should get a copy of Make Y demanding a clear moral s

Own Skep, published by the British Isles Bee Breeders' A iation, from Whitegates, Thul Derby DE7 3EW.Contrary to

01th living in, should be munal movement is a

ther. But I vigorously a hing else. So long as the

Terry Pratchett are far from encoaraigng, Can any- conscious striving for the lost green lact a""Pure

Gayes Cottage, one for instmice p~oduce evidence of life, then those who have that School Lane, of a single strike by car workers consciousness (even in freakish coupled to mechanisms enabi

everyone else to be thus too) Rowberrow, Winscornbe, Som. BS 25 1QP

their industry? And the arti expressly questions the relev seem to be leading that ways

DISAPPOINTMENT AT THE of "workers* control". Personally. 1 am not a ~arxist". So* luck them- The

POINT OF PRODUCTION Then why still hope and p Basil Druiti plus nurture give to the indiv of knowledge explains how n

unique outlook. I work with for) deprived kids (what else

and Clutterbuck. Is there a Ra someone whose parents don: Science? in UC 1 1, p. 8 ? a damn for them?) and they

seek only the means of doing own thing - my problem bei see that they allow everyone the same privilege. Perhaps y

to provide a ". . recipe for the

To those twin pieties I suggest

demands do not attack profits - they just But Trade Unions are, after all, part of lead to price increases, withdrawal of

urrent socio-economic structure. They capital investment and further recession. have been created as an 'oppositional' No real redistribution i s produced.

ement aimed at radically altering (or

issues - such as those concerning manni safety, pollution, long term policy and s

Shown below are some existing items produced by Lucas and i t s subsidiaries. Lucas

of electrical components to the motor vehicle industry. Lucas Aerospace are mainly concerned with supplying a wide range of mechanical

out the mandated policies and protect and advance the interests of the members. I f some of the trade union officials have espoused reformist policies, this does not mean that the trade unions themselves as a whole are necessarily reformist instit- utions - although that i s the danger. There are some countervailing tendencies 2. Lucas electric delivery van and electric-pedal hybrid bicycle. at the grass roots, as the current rise in shop steward, rank-and-file, and cross

3. Lucas Freelite windmill (now discontinued)

union combined activity illustrates 5 . Small scale power units, batteries etc. for isolated sites. (Lucas Industrial

lebrates affiuen

Undercurrents 12

on. Management quite consciously intro- Furthermore, this economism might caus nsumers, workers are forced t o realise duces or accepts conflict-reducing instit- workers' expectations and aspirations t at they lack even the basic elements of utions which force workers to define rise to a point when they cannot be sat ntrol over their lives. They are closely grievances in cash terms. As Michael Mann fied within the present economic system upervised at work, paced by machine has put it: a point not lost on those who are wor d clock, bought and sold according t o ' What we call the institution2.lisation for the overthrow o f capitalism. The pro he needs of the capitalist system, and

of industrial conflict is nothing more lem with this tactic, in its revolutionary caioled to adopt i t s reauired consumotion nur less than the narrowing di).wn of contfxt, i i mat i t does notequip workers and life style ~d t te rns .~he \ jre lust hands conflict to aggressive economism an0 with :in av.dicnfss of, and an ability 10 and mouths. \\ i s not surprising that some defensive control."Consciousnessand organise around, the many equally- workers want more than just more money Action in the Western Working Class. important non-economic issues and prob- to compensate for this alienation. Not Paoermac 19731. lems. After all. workers are not rust faced onlv do thev seek to challenge the basic

So wider \siies i i c "onsi.iousl', reduced \(, h i tn economic i-xplbitation. , ~ l t u..gh cconomi. dliendtiun (the c'xplo tation i.f ecotidniii i,,~ei. I he tact ihat tkli, tactic tlii, m ~ \ he the ccn t r~ l mode of their their labour oouer) hut they a h seek 10

fuels inflation illustrates how unst ression, other more diffuse forms of have more control over the conditions system is. The tendency o f managem ontrol are in operation which help sustain, and purpose of their work. This goes fur- t o encourage aggressive economism, derpin and legitimise the economic ex- there than simply asking for better 'work- the sake of short term ease o f man tation. In their dailv experience at ins conditions' and welfare orovisions. and

mtrol, leads to longer term instabilities, work, as well as in the community or as it i s for this reason that management fears

f Some people might argue t s and space vehic eted in the course of the elimination

try will come round to the sort socially sophistic f three million dollars worth o f damage 'appropriate technology' being ing primary human nee o the environment" - and remember it by the Lucas Combine simply Indeed they went fur the large companies that to a consid- influence o f market forces, perhaps and investigated a consider able extent are resoonsible for the augmented by the pressure of public ,if "social problem areds", including pollution in the rirsl'pldce. opinion or legislation on environmental "communication, education, tran'>port- As the old saying goes: ,'where there's protection/energy conservation. Some of the new products being considered by firms like Lucas indicate that this i s a distinct possibility. In which case, what's the problem' What would be lost i f industry unilaterally opted to alterna- tive technologies?

Now to some extent it may be that industry, operating in response to the market, can shift i t s priorities in this way and thus enable some o f i t s customers to move towards self-sufficiencv. or

. alion, health, infkrmat'on processing, muck there's monc'\ ". Ariuttier, nt'wer crme and delinqucncv. oo l l~ t ion dnd motto ha$ albo been heeded ". . . there's urban development".2 nev in poverty". Urban develop

But note the odd mixture o f ' nts and the US poverty program areas'. Many imply avery 'status e provided much healthy profit oriented view of what constitute firms. As the magazine The Ame social problem and what 'solutions y commented, the ". . . companies should be investigated. As these stu w America's poor as a vast ootential - progre'>scJ i t became more and more rnarket".b obvious that all these firms could offer, Given sucn a viewpoint, i t seems hdrdl) despite their advanced sbstems analysis surprising that the various 'environmen- techniques, were 'technical fixes' ihdt tal' and 'poverty' prolect^i embarkc-d on . .

whatever. But i t is by no means clear i f involn-d fairly sophisticated technology by US industry contributed only mar- i t would oe ~osbible for themass of - computer datd ties and analysis wch- ginally to 'solving' the underlying proh- people to afford the products: they would simply be sold as luxury extras to those who could afford them. After all, that i s the most profitable market at present.

The point is that, given the present socio-economic system and the present locus o f control, the aims and priorities of production are rarely identical with those o f the mass o f people: in short, this view ignores the possibility o f structural divergencies o f interest in society.

I f the industrialists opt for alternative

niaues for criminal records and crime lems. As Goodman commented in After 3

analysis, rapid transit systems, electronic surveillance to combat crime. ' . . their solutions eive little h and so on.

This is hardly surprising when one from these efforts". remembers that the firms would inev ably be concerned with pro enthusiast put it: bility'. The firm's PR departmen

. . . we must find a w ould hold up these projects as dem oriented mechanism by which the great strations of the companies' concern for talents of systems-oriented industry can the underprivileged. Now o f course it be brought to bear on the needs o f soc- might have been possible, if these p ietv3'.3 jects were enlarged and extended, t

technology ', ou can be sure that they In the end what emerged were a few have made some real contribution to will doso in a way that insures the main- meagre, but profitable. projects on mail solving the problems in a limited way tenance of the present system of control, handling systems, rapid transit, an nd in particular to provide work f profit and privilege. data files. As Boguslaw bitterly co many unemployed people who

In this context it i s worth considering mented, i t seems difficult for t of the problem. But in general briefly the activities o f the US aerospace . . . technical elites nutured on a jects were high-capital prestige comoanies in the late 1960's when, due diet of weapons system develo~ment. iects. invoivins onlv small numbers to the 50% cut back n NASA projects, 3 criteiion ir i imeiork of time and cost bl specialists. As Ida ~ o c s has pointed retrenchment hit them for the L K efficiency,and a 'free enterprise' rndnage- out, t h e y were used to draw attention aerospace companies are facing a some- ment ethos, really (to) adurcss them- from the firm's major activities: what similar situation today. selves to the technological tasks intol\ed "Anxious tu credts an image rcflect-

' . retrenchment in the aerospace d in the development of fi industry caused aerospace management rs, missiles and rockets wi to seek new markets and applications"

ry occasionally you get a report o f ion solidarity gestures concerning de- mental policies - after all, their members ed or oppressed workers abroad. And are organised around a crucial point in the

A year or so ago, the Lucas Aerospace, gramme at ICI, in which the unions propos- Shop Stewards Combine Committee set ed a joint management-union control com- UP a science and Technology ConsultancY mittee on ~ ~ ~ i ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ t ~ l studies? H~~~ service which was aimed at providing tech- many read that these workers ". . , were nical advice t o members who were faced

ns. And the local papers might occasion- ally comment on the Trades Councils cam. anxious that the growth of their real with new technologies, work methods,

Daien for better welfare or school provisions, incomes is not t o be at the expense of the speed UP, potentially dangerous machines

health o f themselves, their families or or processes, and similar innovations

their communities". introduced by management As such, this

How many people know about the was essentially a 'defensive' organisation -rransport 2000 group, which aims to press in the traditional trade union sense.

for ". . . a more rational and ecologically But recently the Combine decided that sound form o f transport". they must adopt a more positive stance,

is that of gnat to elephant. . ."' It has not escaped these workers that and develop Counter Proposals rather than e Californian Studies mentioned current modes o f technology and produc- just react t~ and resist management's involved $1 00,000 apiece for tion organisation affect them not only at initiatives. The Aerospace workers are

rejects investigated by Space General, work, but also in their communities- theirs highly skilled and are used to tackling ockheed, Aerojet General and North i s a quite logical response, even in self- challenging new projects. They, like the merican Aviation, compared t o say interest terms. It i s also rational to begin car workers, can plainly see the environ-

to nuestion the loeic of a form of nroduc- mental problems associated with current nd space development..

What does all this imply e the Lucas workers who

hop floor production workers, high killed technicians or managers, wou o doubt be quite happy to engage i

socially useful production. I f the loc of control can be shifted then it may perhaps be possible to engage ail t h i s goodwill and encompass the genuine concern and interest of all the employees in a way that will transcend the narrow profit incentive. This is not to say that Lucas or any other firm shoul become a philanthropic institution but surely i t i s possible to organise production in a way that mee human need without becomin

Initiatives like the one take Lucas Combine are exciting p because they will involve a wi employees. The Combine covers emp oyee who are members of a wide range of unions - white collar, blue collar, engineers, technicians, office staff, supervisors, research staff and middle managers. This body is unlikely to want lust a facade of social responsibility i t i s the real thing they're after. I Kenyon B. Degreene Systems Psychology

McGraw Hill I970 p. 549. 2. N. Calder Technopolis McGibbon & Kee

1969 p.165. 3. I. F. C o b s 'Technology for the Urban

Crisis' Technology Review July-August 1968. 4. R. Boguslaw 'The Design Perspective m

Sociology' m The Sociology of the Future W. Bell & 1. Man Russel Sage 1971 p. 258.

5. R. Martin 'Busmess Tack1 The American Way 1969. R Goodman 'After theP

" tion, planned obsolescen ucts and production - cars, weapon o f conspicious consump ms, and so on. In a recession, when

If a car corker spends nment Defence (and Welfare service) shuffling along a conv ding i s reduced, these goodies are ing t o the production y to be in less demand. While at the has to walk a quarter o f a mile, past the same time the needs of the community - 200,000 unsold cars stored in what was the for houses, basic subsistence items, cheap car park, to his own car, so that he can sources of energy - keep growing. then spend an hour driving through con- - But the Aerospace workers seem also gested streets to his polluted, motorway- to have adopted a radical view of what blighted, home - and all in order to pay they mean by 'alternative products'. It's for his car and the consumer items and not just a matter of a shift in emphasis services to help him forget his work - from military to civilian aircraft and then he i s likely eventually to see the associated systems (such as automatic irrationality o f it all. blind landingsystems) -socially useful

Increasingly, his response is unlikely to and fadical in the Present Context though be just a demand for more money to corn. this shift might be. For although the work-

r 1 1 Prototype LucasrSolar Electric'Car 1

ers are considering these types of new priorities, and similar socially useful and urgently needed pieces of equipment at present of often only marginal or token interest t o the firm -such as medical aids, like haemodialysis units, artificial limbs and other aids to the disabled, eddy cur- rent retarder braking systems for heavy vehicles and so on - they are also consider- ing alternative technologies which may have more long term structural implic- ations, They are interested in the whole range of dlicrnati\e energy technologies, including - windmills, toldr cullcctori. heat pumps, solar cells, hydrogen electrolysis, fuel cells, batteries. inverters, electric vehicles, steam :an, stirling engines and even airships. 1 he\ Are ~unsii-lerine in ~drticular how these technologies can be put to use in complete systems to aid people in need, both in- the short term and the longer term - ̂or example cheap heating and power service units for pre-fabricated industrialised buildings, cheap small scale power units for third world farmers, as well as marine agriculture and undersea farming equipment and robotic equipment to automate unpleasant tasks.

You might argue that some o f these technologies imply 'reform' rather than radical change or revolutionary alternat- ives, in that.they simply deal with problems thrown up by this existing society. But the implied 'classification* of radical/reform technologies is not necessarily a sound one. For one thing, medical and safety prob- lems will exist in any society. And Further- more, whether a particular technology is truly a 'radical' technology depends to some extent on how, when, where and b whom i t is developed and used - i n circumstances'the creation and intro tion of quite conventional technique minor shifts in the pattern o f product or usage, can be revolutionary. For th mass of people to have access t o photo- copyingfacilities would surely be a change which would shift the balance of power somewhat The same could be argued for telex, radio, TV or even computers. On the other hand, some potentially 'radical' alternative technologies could become the base for a repressive society.

This i s no t to return totally to a 'use- abuse' model of technologv (i.e. technol- ... OR i s ne~tral , i t uepcnds on how ) ou use it1 for the 'nic/ins'c.innot be separated from the 'ends' but simply to throw more emph'-bi^ on Uic social and political con- text of its inception, production and use. With this in mind it i s interest that it 's not only alternativep the Lucas workers are conside also alternative modes of p Ther are well aware that it i s point e produce environmentally a ducts in a way that i s socially alienating and environmentally damaging. So they will press for radical changes in the organ- sation and control o f work and demand better designed Jobs, autonomous control by work groups and project teams, new orms of manarcr!ient, and so on.

A i these changes must, t h q Argue, he geared ni\\iirds meeting the real needs of the community - that it towards providing joi;nill\ useful products as opposed to the

e taking the liberty of writing to you as sibility of deploying the skills and equip

on a remafive technology, in particular those forms which are socially useful. We should explain at the outset that this Combine Committee represents all employ

of the 17 U.K. sites of Lucas Aerospace. I t i s therefore unique in the British Trade Uni Movement in that it speaks for the entire spectrum of workers by hand and brain, fron labourers t o senior technologists and engineers. We design, develop and manufacture a wide range of aerospace components and complete systems. A substantial proportion of this work is on defence contracts. It seems t o us that the "energy crisis" wil l result in a slowing down of many of these projects and the general economic climate is likely to result in cutbacks in defence contraca. This we regard as inevitable and even desire Our concern however is that cutbacks of this kind have always resulted, in the past, in the break up of teams of skilled workers and design staff, followed by the degrpdation of the dole queue.

We have, over the past two years, been engaged in a number o f bitter disputes to assert the 'right t o work'. I t i s our intention to do so in the future. However, instead oi ampaigning for the continuation o f socially undesirable product ranges we will, products. In addition.. . we also want t o ensure that the work i s carried out in such a fashion that the full skill and ability of our members is utilised, and that we depart from the dehumanised, fragmentedforms o f work which are now becoming common place even in a highly skilled industry such as aerospace.

The annual turnover of Lucas Aerosoace in the U.K. i s approximately £6 milli There are about 14, emplovees, and some 2,000 of these are engineers, draftsme and scientific staf. rge proportion of the remainder are highly skilled manual workers. It i s the kind of work force which, because of its skilled background is extremely adaptable, and would be capable of working on a wide range o f prod . . . We have just over 5000 machine tools and about 250 of these are numeric automatically or digital display controlled. A list o f test facilities shows that t backed up by products, environmental and investigation laboratories.

There is a very genuine desire to work on products which would be socially u not only in Britain, but in thenewly emergentand d^veiopingcountries It is certain!) not the view of the Combine Committee or of the work force involved that the kind o capital intensive products which have come to characterise the technologically advance nations will be appropriate t o the newly emergent nations. It is therefore fully under- stood and accepted that entirely different forms of technology will have t o be considel ed.

I F YOU KNOW OF ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES on which a work force of this kind could become engaged, in particular if these technologies would be socially useful, we will be very pleased to discuss the matter with you further. We are particul- arly keen t o see that the very considerable skill and ability of our members is used to solve the wide range of human problems we see about us.

We should like, in conclusion, to point out that this initiative comes entirely from our workforce itself, through its Combined Shop Stewards Committee, and as such is completelv independent of thenormalcommercial considerations of a large company of this kind. We wil l greativ aopreciate your adviceand suggestions, and would, of course, treat your reply in confidence.

If you far reaching implications

1. Contact (with s.a.e.): Leeds, LS2 9PR. (Tel.: 1532.459865 present, and can put Committee if you wish.

2. A conference is likely, with workers from L u Details from FSC agai

3. Do you know of ather TUs, shop stewards, wo hese lines?

4. If you'd like to publicise this further, please e F e L kers* committee before you do, as developments may get outdated fairly quickly.

Undercurrents wil l oublicisa further develooments as they occur.

Undercurrents 12 !

urious consumer goodies thrown up b nitiative, and the others that will undou But I imagine there would be a better edly follow, provides a much more viab e (as far as the 'alternative technologist

e concerned) for less sophisticated and small-scale alternatives: methane produc-

om anaerobic digesters; the local ation of hydrogen by electrolysis red by a windmill; small water mills urbines; electric generation by fuel fuelled by methane, natural gas or

(Jnderc"rwn@ or the commune-,jown. hydrogen; the development of electric powered and steam powered vehicles and

s of technological and On- Then come those techniques that we

he would accept as 'pure' AT - small easily controlled, maintained and under- stood, amenable to local construction and use. For example, small scale wind-electric machines, flat plate solar collectors, and small scale convertors like heat pumps run from windmill-generated electricity - or even directly by mechanical power from a

d windmill Operating lhe rity. And in either case there is the Some of the items on this l i s t might not

of isolationism, privatization and turn out to be appropriate in social and environmental terms. I t may be counter-

istine industry by productive in energy and resource usage terms to invest in large numbers o f small

f windmachines or solar panels. Some of the e complex technologies, like fuel cells

ation and control. This does not mean eat pumps, may be too sophisticated e classified as AT. On the other hand

out in the process o f

er for some time.

The point for us on remember i s that here workers who have som

rm) or fortransmission as a gas alon premature or semi-fl nventional pipe lines (as a basis for which help stimulate called 'hydrogen economy'). Or di hers. The point is tha

solar farms and solar furnaces prod

hour of averagely unpleasant work rates one credit, i f the work is more unplcasar; than average, i t rates more than one credi per hour, and conversely vice versa. All members have to fulfill the same quota01 credits per week (40 a t Twin Oaks) and they sign up for the work of their choice, Due to conflicting interests, they will have some work assigned to them that w; not of their choice, and they will not set

IF YOUR philosophical leanings are people are more important than proper- some of the work they wanted to, bucin towards, rather than away from, a broadly ty or profit general, mathematical shuffling gives the

scientific outlook, and you want to change the overall aim o f the community ost satisfactory arrangement for the

your lifestyle so that it's more in keeping the achievement of the 'Good Life' eatest number. its members. Another system used is that of manag;

with some of the ideas and values of expansion o f such communities t manager is a person who hasvolunteen

current alternative culture, what do you enable them to offer a viable alte be responsible for some particular are? actually do? to life in conventional society to as of community activity, like transport,

More people are experimenting with many as want it maintenance, or agriculture. A manager communal living situations and/or common , wrical approach to problems, has. in etfect, a mandate from the group ownership work situations. It seems likely use ofthe potential for good of beha". to co-ordinate activities in his particular that i f such projects were to flourish in iour modification techniques using field; the policy, however i s determined sufficient quantity and diversity, they would form a significant and viable alter-

positive reinforcement, not pbnishment. ^ the ffoup, the manager merely laking

This last point i s the most controversial, the mundane decisions. At Twin native to the conventional society of our and ignord here smce it Oaks, nearly all members a times. an article in itself. A highly recommended

No need to expand this daydream; many book on fie sub ect to One further system is t of us shire i t to differing degrees and in Beha", ment. Their system is a so getting our different social projects off open oligarchy with numerous safeguards the ground and making them succeed. includinga democratic over-rule mechani How many groups fail to get started for Twin There are three people who take on th every one that makes it? I f an intentional ob o f being planners (blame Skinner for commune/community does manage to get a corn unfashionable names.. .), each planner started, it's been said that it has a life being in office for 18 months before expectancy o f about three months on utomatically getting the boot. The three average. start to be a thriving community of some planners have decision making powers, bi

In so tar as there are any reasons for sixty or so members on a 120 acre farm. their decisions are arrived at after opei failure, perhaps the two most common are The combination o f ideas from Walden discussion with anv interested membe

available material on the perceived although, perhapsmore t able decisions, members havecertain tz, there i s a great deal of i rights and freedoms guaranteed. ion. It may be that much o comes down to open government with

ly adopted framework is s e active consent of the governed and dged by the criteria of surviva. eems to have worked well for the features o f this framewor In brief outline, some o f the o

probably the most immediate1 es of Twin Oaks are as folio us feature i s organisation. Neithe A contract signed on joinin r hierarchy, nor rigid organ plicit certain aspects o f the y organisation designed to help etween the individual and the c ve those things that the members - for example, finance, or term

membership.

Walden Two and agreed with most o f the For example, the labour credit system All incomes are pooled. The i s a system devised to ensure that necessary money that members may spen

jdeas in It' In practice the Israeli work gets done with a minimum of negat- own behalf is their pocketmoney allowar kibbutz would probably have made as ive feelings. In outline, it 's simple. A All o f a member's private financial ass good a starting point, we wanted some-

dvance how any assets or liabilities that resulted from the conference is the o be divided up, in order to lessen t

potential unpleasant scenes. So the fi stage was to agree how we wanted the We were lucky and found a solicitor who project to be arranged financially, and was sympathetic and had previous exper- the second was to find an appropriate ence in solving avery similar problem to

ours. This meant his research time would

education. In their early days the nd that parents' relationships wit administers the property for the benefic- i r own children, mainly their relu aries, who are the members. The trustee of ce to oass control and resoonsibilit ~eoote to return t the trust, and therefore the legal owner, i s

on to the community, rcpcdiedly ciiused ialstates on ieating the ' o r n m ~ n i t ~ . .I lim:ted company. By d curisus trcdk of unoleasant .ind counter~rodttc i i t~ . members dsscts 10 be used by the fate, i t 11, happens thdl edih diid eu'r)

uations. In the interest of their o member is a director of this limited co pany. Also, we have been granted a part capital gains tax exemption on selling u the property. We think that we have 1

e been those bo effect, equal joint ownership by a gr ter much discussion we of more than four. the followinacurious ar Other aspects of our formal relatio

i o t ii ,GI u i rules, niort- .1 ipi:c;ric.iti~)n c,f On ii.,iiiiiio, eacn menthcr c l e c u ? ~ ~ tncir n i p to c2.h other ,ire ~ i . ~ d ~ b c\pI'cit in i)u; iomr .,I tnu ni,rnis thdl t t ie) '\w 10 \.ng t,, :Â¥iirndtc p r i ~ ~ k - uealtn ~ n d il :il lru?t'n l ru?i ueea, a n d I:, .1 liner C-stcrit, 1 1 the est,~blish. Sorrv u t i h t n i i t t po nts on i t they mii) no longer spend .in\ of it. A .irt.i.lei "1 ~ilsni:dtioii of .)u-r ~~.,mpan\.

teraction with others.

what's in them. . . As these documents could well be o f interest to other g we intend t o make them available t

necessary.

that other groups could merely modify

Looking for a place We chose the Welsh border wmewhe

llholdings and prices are less than in land. Near Shrewsbury, so that we d earn money, hopefully from our own

the first priority. We are also enthu about alternative technology; solar extension, methane generator, etc a nauseam, to say nothing o f continu

rounded by the land. The five roomed

sive. Mains water and electricity were connected.

A t the time, this was relatively chea

to be symbiotic; a balanced two w tionship; we help you as much as us. In practical terms, visitors cove

Two of us had start

work situation under our own con

e voiced this kind of criticism, two en the only two who have failed to Cofnfnunes

Although we've got pi

by those who arc intere usually everybody. The out the policy.

are: House - the dom

$7.95. Order from Twin Oaks.

Undercurrents 17

then become rapidly mo

935 by Berger. He placed an elec he back of a subject's head and pi n electrical rhythm of about ten er second. This was the first frequ

iet. This approach works. You can s ganism (of which the individual may yourself. %ly hands are warm,' and ompletely unaware consciously) when closed and thinking is random. T

he trainees could see what was happenin

can consciously understand. Some Uses of Biofeedback

often results in elimination o f the migraine. This i s a matter of simple hydraulics; the result i s not achieved by drawing the blood away from the brain and the scalp. Soak- ing the subiect's hands in hot water, which

ect on also makes them warm, has no eff- the headache in the majority o f cases. What appears t o happen in biofeedback i s that in learning to control the flow of blood in the hands, the patient is learning both how to engage the entire autonomic nervous system in the blood flow process. The knef i ts of imorovinf, blood flow in one part of the bod" are then fenerd l i~d (bv the central hypothalmic control) to all parts of the system, including the head. The loss of the migraine appears to be a fortunate by-product Our interests, however, are not limited

to the physiological aspects of psychoso- matic illness and disturbance. We are also interested in psychological processes. For example, we have done a substantial amount o f research on theta brain waves. The theta wave i s an even slower rhythm than alpha, from four to six cycles per second. It begins usually just before we actually fall asleep, when we are very auiet and still. If theta i s produced without the individual actually falling asleep, al- though that i s what usually occurs, then the subject experiences hypnagogic images. A hypnagogic image i s one that Cashsi vividly and completely into the mind. often with considerable detail and com- plexity. Most o f us experience this pben- omenon briefly and occasionally at the edee of sleep. Biofeedback can be used to hetp trainees induce theia waves without succunoinp. to slee~. When thi'i ha~pens,

I the hypnagogic images become more pien- tiful and persist. Thev are not consciously

! created; they are self-generating. 1 Theta waves and the associated hypna- 1 gogic images are important from several ' points o f view. For example, a number of

eminent scientists and artists report in their autobiographies that hypnagogic images ' were sometimes the source o f their best

1 ideas. Hypnagogic images in creative indiv- iduals may represent an aspect of their genius. Theta waves may be related to

I creativity. I We also found that the increased pro-

duction of theta waves - as with alpha 1 waves - produced greater well-being, , better work output and more relaxed and

convivial personal relationships in most subjects. These results were also experien- ced by mental patients. Some patients seem to get information from their uncon- scious in the form of hypnagogic images, which aids them and their psychiatrists in the resolution o f their problems.

Swami Rama The heart control experiment referred

to above was only one of a continuing series of experiments at the Menninger Foundation. The experiments were a part of the Mennineer Voluntarv Controls Programme. one day one of the doctors who had graduated from Mennineer called

me on the phone and said he had found a achieved comparable results. Sud yogi who could make his pulse disappear. yopi called out, 'What is my hea This seemed mildly interesting so we now?' A t this point he had incre agreed that this yogi, Swami Rama, should 'dub' half o f the normal 'flub-du come t o the Foundation for a series of tests. so that it was unusually large - When he arrived. we connected him to our like 'flub-DUB. flub-DUB.' to re monitoring devices. He then suted that this in words. When he did this, his r.,: in i t i~ l l v he would differentiate the tamper- shot up from around 66 l u round 8.1 ature in two spots on his hand; he said he per minute. We then requested the would heat up one place and cool the to slow down his heart rate. Quick! other. duced it from 70 beats per minute

The results, briefly, were as follows. around 52. The session ended. Over a five minute period the temperature The Swami was due to depart of both soots drifted up slightly. Then neapolis the next day, but he was there was a distinct shift in the record, and that he had not 'stopped' his hear the ipmprrature of both b+wn to drop. O'igindlly he had said that he ncecl?ri'Â But then the temperature below the little fast fa" thre" days before attemptini;'~ finger began t o rise while that below the thumb went down and stayed down. We talked a little, and then the yogi said he was about to dosomething A t that point the temperature of both spots began to rise. Then the one below the thumb went down again while the other continued t o rise. Finally. we had a difference of eleven degrees Fahrenheit between the two areas.

Then we did the heart experiment On the cardiotachometer record his heart pro- duced an initial rate 0^66 beats per min- ute. Then it speeded up t o almost 94 beats and finally drooped t o 62. This fluctuation was interestine. but other subiects had

so. This was logical if 'control' was tali achieved; it would be exercised throu* the vaeus nerve. which also controls the I stomach and a good deal o f the viscera. Indigestion could result from interfered with that nerve. Nevertheless, the S d announced that he would make the atd without fasting He was interested tofd out i f there would be any side effects. 1

-. THIS SKIN RESISTANCE meter is the sirnotest of all biofeedback devices and is very easy t o construct.

The circuit i s the same as that used by Maxwell Cade for the biofeedback meters he orovides for each student in his ~s{choc\bcrnciii.s clash's at the Frdnklin School of Cuntempor~r\ Studies in London bee UC1 1). l i consists o f a bimcrv and a variable resistor (~otent io

second, he did not want to forgo the tunity of being recorded. In any case said, his own teacher could stop hi at any time without any preparati agreed to the attempt We did no however. to the Swami's orooosa

meter) which pass a minute electric current through a suitable part of the body, via a pair of electrodes. The magni- tude o f the current i s measured using a microammeter and varies with the sub-

with wires soldered to them. The spon is wrapped in plastic tape (except whâ the buttons are) and is fastened to the palm of the subject's hand by means o a strip o f Velcro (which costs about 15 per foot from any dress material shop!. Putting the electrodes on i s like straoci your watch to the inside of the palm 6

ject's skin conductivity. your hand. When you are relaxed and calm, your I used virtually the same arrangem

body does not perspire very much and, due to the lack o f moisture on your skin, realm (don't know wot come ove only a relatively small current will flow Officer for use as electrodes, sine between the electrodes. But if you begin to feel excited, your body starts to sweat and the current between the electrodes increases significantly.

To make your own skin resistance meter, with which you can start to expiore the correlation between your own mental and physical states, this is all you need. * A 50 microampere meter. New, this can cost you about £ (suppliers advertise in magazines like Wireless World). But by nosing around in secondhand shops you should be able t o pick one up for a lot less. 1 compromised a little, and bought a 50-0-50 microampere 'centre-zero' instrument in a shop o f f Tottenham Court Road in London for £1 It works just the same as a 50 microampere m except you only use one half of the s can probably use almost any transistor (Warning: i f you're buying a secondh radio battery: experiment. meter, be sure to get it tested in the 0 Switch. This i s inserted between the

first). positive terminal of the battery and thc * A 5 kilohm linear potentiometer. rest of the circuit. It 's not necessary i f 8 Electrodes. Cade's are made from metal buttons (yes, just like you put on connect the battery after using the clothes) embedded i n a small sponge, device. Otherwise, you'll run the batte'

Undercurrents 12

would stop his heart for three to four min- We wired him up in the usual way. I out. I was thinking that I could interrupt utes! Ten seconds would be enough for us. had not known in advance what he would his conscious-unconscious harmony. He

The next day he performed. Our records demonstrate. What he did was drive knit- looked startled and said that he did not reflect that his heart rate of 70 beats per ting needles through his biceps, without think he would bleed. But when he took minute suddenly rose to 300 beats per min- any expression of pain and (except as de- the needle out he did bleed, quite a lot in ute for a period o f 17 seconds. A t this scribed below) without bleeding. Later he fact. We were mopping the blood up when point my wife in the control room called, performed the same thing before an aud- he said in a soft voice, 'Now it stops'. Then, 'That's all,' our pre-arranged signal t o con- ience o f fifty doctors. But before he while I was actually looking at the punc- elude the experiment. But we were puzzled began, he dropped the knittingneedle on ture wound with the blood running out, it

- if his heart had stooped, why did our the floor and rubbed along the floor with closed up in about one second. I congrat-

records show 300 beats per minute? we his shoe. In answer to our curious looks, ulated him. We now knew that he could took the graph to a cardiologist for his he explained that he was sterilizing his bleed like a normal person, but could also opinion. He told us the 300 beats per min- equipment Playing the 'straight man', I stop the bleeding at will. I suggested that Ute signal was known at atrial flutter. This asked why he had never developed an he might like to do the whole thing again occurs when the heart is not pumping infection. He replied roughly, 'All the without bleeding. A long pause ensued,

blood; the are not working and the cellular material of the body can be con- and I began to wonder what I had said

;hamhers are not filling with blood. Blood trolled by the mind. Normally we cannot wrong. Finally he said okay, and inserted

pressure droos and the person faints. What, do it because we are unaware or uncon- the needle a second time in a sliehtty dif- by the way, he asked us, had happened to scious. Yet such functions are under the ferent place. This time the holes closed up this patient? we told him 'nothing8 - the mind's control, and if I give instructions quickly. There was no subdermal bleeding Swami just took off the electrodes and for my body not t o interact with any and there were no marks of any kind. Ail

went out and gave a lecture. foreign materials, how can I get an infec- traces of one puncture had disapoeared in tion?' twenty-four hours, and o f the other three

Jack Schwariz By the time he had the needle buried n seventy-two hours. I had heard about Jack Schwartz and about half an inch deep in his arm, I began Later I asked Jack why he had paused

invited him t o come to the laboratory. to think that even if he did this a hundred before agreeing to a second trial. He ex- About a year after the invitation was issued, times, I still would not believe that he plained that he would never 'force' his he called and said he would come to the could control his blood flow. Maybe, I body to do anything. Instead, he had to laboratory for eight days. When I looked thought, he has a peculiar skin. Conseq- request his body to perform the task - in my diary all the days on either side of uently, with the intention of interfering that is, he had to 'ask' his 'subconscious' those dates were full, but the ei@t days with his concentration, I asked him if he if it was willing to co-operate. He also said were available would bleed when he culled the needle that he had t o clear the request with his

- and then to see how the needle's behaving.

When you have reached a calm state, neither deeply relaxed nor excited, adjust the potentiometer until the meter reads 25 microamps - the middle of i t s scale. Then, as a very rough guide, when you

paraconscious'. (Paraconscious i s aooarent- ly his term for some kind o f superconscious.) In other words, he is not willing to do 'tricks*. Aoparently, he needs to feel that the effort i s worthwhile. He apparently - must seek confirmation, first from his sub- conscious and then from his paraconscious.

Swami Rama had discussed the same down slowly. can make the meter reading drop below issue with us. Hiscomments suggest that

The battery, switch, potentiometer, 15 microamps, you should be in as here i s some kind o f field or fields assoc- meter and electrodes are all inter- approximating to 'Alpha'. If you ca ted with the body. The Swami went connected as shown in the circuit make the meter drop below about "I further - he argued that there is a 'field diagram. All connections that can be microamps, you should be somewhe of mind' surrounding the planet. There are soldered should be soldered. The photo- near ' ~ h ~ t ~ ' . ~~t i t is important to a lo t o f 'pranas' or energies outside the graph showing the various parts inter- remember that the meter is merely skin, as well as ten within it connected (but uncased) should make measuring your skin resistance, not y Theoretically, biofeedback holds enor- things clearer. tate o f consciousness which cannot be mous potential for self-healing. But there In practice, you should of measured. (Also, i f you're feeling tired, may also be some real limits to the control course rig up some kind of case for the nwell, it's sometimes difficult to g apacity of many, if not all, subjects. ~h~~ thing. It is not conducive to good med eedle to rise above 10 microamps: too there is the argument that biofeedback tation if, when you accidentally tug one equally, i f you're over-excited it's often may be potentially harmful, even ifappar. of the wires in a moment of Satori, the hard to get the reading down below 50 entlv effective. L e w k Thomas- M 0 takes bits come tumbling into vour lao like microamps).

There are significant correlations between skin resistance and observed mental state, but the correspondences are by no means one-to-one, and a great deal o f research into the whole subject i s still beingcarried out. Maxwell Cade i s work- i n g on a book on the subject, t o be published by Heinemann next year.

~. .- ~ ..--, ~ ~ .-., essentially this position when he argues that the problem is:

If I was informed tomorrow that I was in direct communication with my liver and 1 could now take over, I would become deeply depressed. For I am, to face the facts squarely, considerably less intelligent than my liver. I am, moreover. constitutionallv unable to

Heinemann are also publishinga book by make hepatic decisions, and I prefer Elmer Green sometime soon. not to be obliged to do so; 1 would not - Details of Maxweli Cade's next series o f be able to think o f the first thing to do.1 classes are obtainable from the Franklin

sold School of Contemoorarv Studies. 43 There are probably limits to the applic- . . for holding 5 by 3 index cards. The meter Adelaide Road, ond don N W ~ . ~ b t until n o f biofeedback; this i s likely to is mounted through a circular hole in the such classes become much more wide- prove the case as the phenomenon is further lid, the potentiometer and switch are spread throughout the country, readers researched. One of the disease conditions inserted in holes drilled at the side, and who can't get to London easily win have have thought to be amenable to any the electrodes are stored conveniently to find out for themselves by trial and kind of conscious control, limits notwith- inside the box when not in use. error what the various meter readings an ding, is cancer. Yet Carl and Stephanie

It's difficult to give other than vague potentiometer setting mean for them. A onton have introduced the 'mind' into advice about using the meter. The best always, having a teacher makes things their practice. Carl, a physician, is a radia- thing i s Just t o experiment with various great deal easier, but i t 's by no means tion t!:e::ipi,t. Stephanie is a psychologist relaxation techniques (such as the Zazen possible to get along without one. and vi o i k s d o x l y with Carl's patients, procedure which Cade uses: see UC 1 I ) , Godfrey Boyle

principailv in ii counselling role. Simonton taking a peek at your meter every now Continued on page 3 7

21~"

he 'solar kitchen'

d be a lapse into talk rather than always available, and no extra ma S o m e in the group had previously r "apprentice projects. involved with the political implic- In the year that the meetings have

ogy was to hunt out real space in an

pipe has been restored to health to keep the temperature at least above freezing,

The first major projects that the grou decided upon were related to food and t

A senior engineer from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, C.J.

a mechanical engineer, Roy Samras, has advised on the construction details of all the projects. Two house-builders who visit

acuated tube. As it is heated by the d twists, i t s torque i s transferred th tainless steel seal at the end o f the

group has turned to the more practical area of flat plate collectors for home hot

r heat indoors for cooking, coul water heating. Three designs, all capable of withstanding freezing temperatures (a

Basement Fish Farm

Und

prise have proven fruitless. So-called practical l ink between in istence of either, that the Commimi liberal foundations have expressed gre eople in the neighbourhood. ethnology group questions. skepticism at the entire notion of neigh First reactions in the corn Further, the group questions thehi bourhood scale technology, preferring, re enthusiastic but not terriblyac cal corporate and state organizati'~ instead, projects o f more spectacular ighbourhood (a 70-block rectangl society itself and intends that i t s wo-K and, particularly, projects which, rather the inner city, with 31,000 people j in support of a non-hierarchical, deceit than emphasize work, emphasize welfare. about equally divided be zed, participatory (rather than repreg It is the conventional wisdom that inner white and ~oanish-soeakine) comes t o C-T ive) notion of society. As encouragemi

~ ~ -. ( i t \ neignbournoiids are roomed tothe regul.irly for loutin; adiicc on mechanical f01 t l i i , nc "1 ri."t~.~ri.ti, the group c s ? mo,t dcrnc~iiing sort of dependent and matter't. But no major project o f co- oh\iotiii hretikdo\\n i1 the l^r(;er inst. that, theiefori.-, the hcst mine to do for operation has been accomplished. Ongoing lions ul >oc:et). r> iper i~" i t i i . l \ the W J

them i s iust in to make life oearable. l i discussions of l i b 1 industrial productiun 's encourd~ed b\ me lung histor:cal ev. i s also said that inner city people cannot deal with scientific concepts or with tech- nological terms and tools. While C-T can- not claim t o have disproven that absolute- ly, i t s members fee! there i s no reason to accept it as a fact, either.

It i s Dossible. however, that the verv lack o f supportfor the project will, in the Ions run, prove to be beneficial. I f the

and gardening aileast keep the possibility tence and success of small-scale socia very much alive. Two substantial neighbour- organization, from villages and cornmu

wn meetings, assemblies, and othe s which, even when obliterated by er institutional power, have she%

arkable power to resist and even recover and return.

native path for those vtho, uhile uorkinp leclin:.~uci ,ind TOOIS n?ost siiitcd tuct at hiah skills or science. i-luestioti the t r < t ! ' ~ ~ t i o n .ire ~'vcrvuherr dppj!cm i c - . , . . .

SruLp can :,i.r~ibi; the lack of any s~hstan- current corporate organi~iition and deplo\- dt.'<~-Iopriicnt of tix'hnolog\ ( !?in ̂ tur: tlal 'nitial f~ndiri,;, par tc~ lar ly for louli, ment of those resource,. I t cnibics scicn. ,tii~ti, :\ bcrniitinii, alt;rntili\e1 energy then i t GI1 ndvc made .I better case for Lit,, enginct'rs, techni~ians, an0 craft- wuti-i;d .i')u ,ti, bcuusc of ~-r,rp~irai' neighbo~irnoiid self-s~ificienc\ than i t ncoole to re-think the roles of tnvir skills slate or,'in:/..ition, the Â¥iciic of ~ppl i f possibly could have if elaborately sup- andtalents while actively or, you could ation continue to grow gigantically, vi ported. As a pioneering effort, however, sav scientifically testing the material 00s- something as simple as an aerosol valve

afford, from outside resources, to a now, a national or perhaps internatior' such needed items as a milling machine, health hazard. The assembly line is am adequate air compressor, lifting and jig- ging equipment, and general laboratory equipment.

The group's next order o f priority, particularly after getting the second- generation fish production system under- pie in the sky. way, i s to develop self-sustaining projects Given patience and which will, also, produce enough income keep going even at the present leve to sustain the operation overall and even enable at least one or two people to work at i t full-time. One such project would be a mobile auto repair service -,driving to t o electrical, methane, methanol, or disabled machines, particularly in the hydrogen drive systems with particular suburbs, and earning enough, say, from hope that one or two such vehicles could two or threedays' operation there to be maintained as community vehicles; a enable several more days of operation at system of basement fish farms to enable cost, or free, in the neighbourhood. regular harvests; more rooftop gardens; (Three o f the group whoare competent regular aporenticeshios for the neiehbour- Karl Hess at such things;* engine tune-ups already hood to spread as far as possible scientific work for people in the neighbourhood methods and technical knowledge and The development o f cities themselv and emphasize teaching those helped now skills; wind-power devices, with one i s another process which encourages ti to help themselves.) Other suggestions already being planned to charge a munity Technology approach. Ar include a home repair van which would t o light a community sign; design cities, in particular, are agglomer- operate on the same basis as the auto construction of motorless load-ca r ns of once-independent municipali repair service and, of course, the commer- devices to replace the rickety shopping h maintained their own social ser. cia1 sale of the rainbow trout and the flat carts which are now about the only sue , protection, and even productive plate collectors. devices in the neighbourhood; emancip- facilities prior to annexation into the

But the long-range purposes o f the

t s o f the mind, and the predatory

A HOT COMING we had of it, just the best time of the year for a journey, and such Yes, this field i s full of people busy

really cool about their evangelism. The most important thing is to have fun - do what you want to do because it

changed gear. Pretty h but it's nice for the child

And then we are in Wal veness. Since there wa e r is reduced to applying beer bunting hanging from an d, the legend 'Danger Ele will take the weight, and he Undercurrents generat 'Welcome to the Festiva be an act of faith rather th

Phew! Wot a relief! It away to the land of anaesthesia. A man turns up at the Comtekcabin

and asks who's in charge. When told that no-one is, he staggers away

Undercurrents 24-hour litera mystified. There are hundreds of market (by courtesy of Corn people here, and none of them are and Comtek). Someone says to extricate oneself from fighting, stealing, raping, pillaging, sweet dome" for the thirty-fo looting or burning. And yet no-one's

from across the river. "Are those nas ou missed it this time, there'll s be another time.

in terms of skills and harsh industri

final forum was on Altern

eeper human potentials must

practical workshops.

only at our peril. To radical! .y and turn technology to a f n use, we must reach for i t s he earth beneath the layers o

Undercurrents 12 ¥

the Futures Centre, 15 Kelso Road, Leeds 2, on October 18 t o 19. The 1 4 Diggers group in Leeds have already taken 1: over some land in the town for cultiva- d

o come to this and for the People.

xisting groups concern themselves

out facing up t o the pr

ttention to the fact that there are otection of the land from agr eady many people who want to get

to the land to live and work who do t have a chance to do so. A number o f ople said that they were going to look r suitable disused land on which we can

was punctuated at frequen

changing rapidly. National li movements all over the world are r

P ing the dependence o f their count Western im~or ts . The present worl

f nomic crisis is only anindication o f t AM CAINE o f the Street Farmers community itself could generate what ; shape of things t o come. A reductio p recently spent several weeks ' exports from countries like Britain ugal where he and some friend

eded subsequently. Nevertheless the ; other parts of the world will make

shower gradually won acceptance, to get involved with a local co if i t was treated as a somewhat A

increasingly difficult for us to pay 'ty and local workers and to I ntric idea brought in by strangers. food imports which are now costin ing o f the struggle that i s under £3,00 million a year.

Graham and the group then interested way in that country. They were also able the local people in a plan for sewage dip But greater which t o lay the groundwork for a programme posal (there is just an open sewer pit) and

' therefore becoming increasingly of Community Technology development. power generation. It i s this much more cessary, is not likely to be achieved crucial development which the thout drastic changes in economic Graham presented a fascinating report be able to aid when they can obtai

ttitudes and in the present power of their visit at Comtek. sufficient funds to return. structure. We've got to realise that none what was impressive was that they I t was particularly interesting of the existing political parties would were, even if only tentatively, able to from Graham that although he

pporea move towards workers' control stimulate local people into awareness of until then operated on the princip d community ownership Of the land. the potential of community-generated 'do-it-yourself-sufficiency' - foil 've therefore got quite a technology. Perhaps more significantly, a small-group anarchist line . when us, but as this will be seen increasingly they were able to interest a worker. was faced with fairly large groups o f

as matter of necessity, rather than choice, controlled factory in the idea of dis. ... . . . workers whu controlled the factorv, hi- .. e will be on ou ie material resources to aid could sec no problem with m e1cmcnt.iry

division of labour. You don't have to do What one catches a glimpse of here i s everything yourself or be able to controi

how a fully-developed socialist society everything i f vou live in a society in ^\\ could work I t took only a few minutes which evirvthint? i s under collective con- fi

Throughout Portugal, workers and

I * could be done with solar energy to meet tion dgainstcontrol by the Comm communitv needs Thev admit that oer- or destruction bv the reactionary

wn their travelling nuclear horror ing water, much less hot wat

COLIN TAYLOR constructed rammed earth blocks using this press, and a rammed earth wall. Both techniques are described in Colin's recent article (Undercurrents 11 ).

Undercurren

^ roblems, but in the end got the array lumbed in and free o f leaks, usingan

tment of plastic and copper fittin radiator hose and jubilee clips. An ex- washing machine pump circulated th water, and Steve wired up a control b

in the to vary flow rate according to heat ga ector The heavily-insulated 55gal hot water steam, storage tank provided much more hot

water than was required by the kitchen, d it was a pity that our original

tion o f orovidine a shower as well - ~~ . show. Sunhedl ~ ~ s t e m s ' ABS pIdiLc pr i~ i ; for (any n ~ m u u r goes to the solar coUd not be ' fu l f i l l ed . '~o~rver we quick response collector \see lJClO1 colft-'ctor built troni a refriffflator con- >tioçe bv bnildint? the svsiem from ;roused d lot of interest, but also illusir.iied one o f the main proh.enis as'.uciatrd with thick o l ~ s t ~ c heal e x changers o f this kin& 'unless water was constantly circulated through the penel, it wilted in the sun. Robinsons o f Winchester also showed a panel - although i t did not arrive until late in the week. Made f r o m y thick channelled

s PVC membrane, this panel bore striking resemblance to an enthusiast's panel built nearly a year ago. The channelled

rgely scrap components that with inimum plumbing skills anybody

The main works stall a cheap water heating system their own Further details of the coil instdllation and control box are av

wrestled with monster plumbing Brian Ford 1 4

ry ambitious event and t rarely strayed from grou covered in Undercurrent

he airwaves and the wirewaves and

eat pains to emphasise that

occasional fly-by-night land-bas stations insinuating themselve into Auntie's exclusive airspac broadcasting the sort of music

ople have been resorting to in orde t down on their bills. There was a

magic to the AT movement. Several people commented on the

nearer to reconciling science a

portant to develop the k i

can feel phenomena such as human aura' without these

COMTEK itself was an ex

ues. Problem is, planning regula- nukes.

mouths will find, weeks, months or yea hence, that they learned something usef from the people around them. Espe ' from the ones who didn't say a thin

Village Hall for a discussion o n Alter- disagreement had been about. The ma native Culture, and then we realised we next to me thought it was polit i didn't know what we were meant to be activists versus New Aee Conscio Talking about.

Definitions of 'culture' were offered, so broad as to be mean theories were sketched out canvases. Points were scor nciuding the Gestal correctly sussed the playing, and then joined in himsel i n impressive lecture on Maslo hierarchy of human need

What did the people w yet want to say? Nothing, for

I thought it was intell~ctuals v. the re Someone said i f this was how t native Culture held discussions no better than the straight soc' side. I don't agree. I've never h Institution of Cm! Engineers baring their souls the way we did that afternoon Maybe i t did hurt for some o f us Maybe we didn't reach any conclusions Mdybe we proved once again that without straight culture to lean on, Alternative Culture would collapse. But it set the

part. The people who did speak mostly brain cells tineline. and I think even<ome Arlena Qistil'ien of FOE outs their best disagreed I don't think any two people o f those who yeft-with a bad taste in their pedal forward.

or improvements to the studio, includin! a solar shower, eco toilet, heat pump and windgenerator. i t i s also hoped thar -

Here's what one of the organisers has t o apparatus in order to measure theper- , others will be interested in producingana say. . . . formance o f prototypes o f both testing their prototypes in the depot - ,

MOST PEOPLE have their own definition and manufacturers. an activity which could be supplemented

of ~ l t ~ ~ ~ ~ t i ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ h ~ ~ l ~ ~ ~ but COMTEK Overall, COMTEK 75 has been reason- by regular weekend workshops on

stands for Community Technology, ably successful in increasing the national specific topics with audiences of 'expert

which means a technology interest in the subject. There are two and 'laymen'. Finally it i s felt that it i s

duced and marketed withi nationwide TV programmes in the 'pipe- time to do something really outrageous

social fabric. line' and other reports of interest have and serious in order to demonstrate the

This i s something that ca been fairly widespread. The exchan ibilities of alternative approache ideas between those who took part ications for AT are particular1

achieved by sitting in a she yourself a wind generator. very good, everyone enjoyed thems opriate for revitalizing local

done slowly by putting materials, tools, but the must be stries and for liberating disus

and techniques into the hands of your through for i t to have all been worth- buildings and land - and there is

neighbour and gettinghim to do it hi,,.,. while. However, I am not convinced that of that in most places, including Festivals of this format are the best way us all now get together and look or o f getting ideas across to the layman. a legal but quick way to stage such

The Festivals tend to be a fulcrum vincing demonstration. around which revolve the activities of Glyn Davies COMTEK for the rest o f the year. Con- sequently, the commitment to continue (COMTEKIBath Arts W

e dusk on the hillside, and people ined in on pennywhistles and an old urn. They drummed quietly, out o f

gh t behind the tents, and a sublimina

cia1 kite flying picnic t o escape the med festival field. The Earth Block ing was also popular but,like the and Wind workshops, it could have

ssociated performance data, but even en it would be difficult to improve the

he heavens were celebrating y. It was so nice and warm th

that week because of the stars and th

extended essay by Woody. Parts one and two appeared in

What went wrong 7 Why did the move- ge, and the reponse to effort ratio ment fail 7 The surprising answer is that begins to fall this is less hkely to be a t probably didn't 1 at least not until sign of communications or other failure the rot set in The notion of relative than a sign that movement building is morality tells us that it never had any nearly complete In plain language

olute truth, either before or after everyone else thinks the ideas are adjustment' There never were any rubbish

piar, in every generation heathen What the movement did have By changing the message, the subjecti- Let us consider the grow was a relative truth which was valid ve group will also change, and the movement whether relig for a certain minority with particular group which responds to the modified

ranges of personality, l i fe experience ideas may be larger than before There usually is assumed, by those concerned and life situation It is quite possible is no absolute sense, however, in which - that if the message IS right it should h a t most of this minority did associate one set of ideas is better than the other be possible to convince at least a with it For the majority, its truth was If this is so. it might seem logical to take majority of people of its worth, to not valid and would not become so the ideas (if any) which command convert them to the truth At first lt until their life experience and/or situa majority support, to be right by defini looks as i f the assumption may be ion, was modified in an appropriate tidn This will be little help to the ongl justified the movement begins to way This conclus~on can be summarised nators and followers of the movement grow Sometimes growth may be slow in the following axiom which we WIII it was almost certainly the fact that and steady sometimes really spectacu- argue is of crucial imp they were not part of the subjective a with thousands even millions group to the prevailing ideas which

produced the movement

ct communica ' e can now give a second, more objec-

ation number e, answer to the moral questions sked before why struggle 7 and why

the rate of growth is tailing 0 ruggle for sociality7 We struggle At this point, one of two t ecause we are part of the subjective usually diagnosed Either th up to these ideas This discovery

kes more, not less urgent our (perhaps the movement's fa~lu tinuous criticism of our own poss-

For any set of ideas no matter how ridiculous from other standpoints, and no matter how poorly communicated there will probably be some fraction of

The second option bring's its own a real subjective group available to and not. repeat not the extent to w special dilemma to what extent should accept them others are able to accept its truth the message be modified At one extreme there may be the view that ihb message is sacred it is the truth and astonished 1

any attempt to dilute it in pursuit of popularity is profane At the other end movements In one sense commun

son IS making available ideas-bo facts and values reasons and explana- tions-to those able to receive them If after the instjal contact communication

ment should continue to grow.Betw becomes a two way process then these limits a whole range of compro something can be said to have been ses is possible Even if the movem created Ccrnmur~cation in this sense was not already tending to disintegr hed with c is vital to any movement Indeed some

would say that it is the movement But communication may also imply persua- sion getting the other person to see your way, convincmg people of th need for change, etc Communicatio in this second sense is intoleran dogmatic It seeks to make a relativ

the subjective group beings Thus i t would not be necessary morality absolute This remains tru to communicate with anything like half

religious and political dogma left to fall out over few wlll want ve the most viable going concern be greatest at the dogmatic extre- ere large numbers of small sects e formed Each of these sects

s almost impossible not to be s way. None-the-less, for those w

tion to this problem is likely t

Other systems of understanding)

investigation at a number of levels. So far we have treated so

Some lines of enquiry suggest that the whole naive idea of common objective

real facjor in the life situation of the nterests breaks down once the wonder- victims: a facility which is (fortunate- ful complexity of human beings is ly) seldom available to minority groups. understood. Others stand by the notion :liange. There is no absolute

Once any subjective group has Cornmu- of objective interests on common sense n y the subieciive group to given

nicated .with itself, identified itself, grounds, and see the problem in terms become a movement, then the Pro- of psychological barriers. under favourable conditions. In polit

blem of social change, whatever else i t terms, the classic success story < was the rjse of fascism in '20s and ' Germany. Almost every twist of economic, social and political

stion now arises, what if the It was the punters dream : ' through the card'.

The prospect that circumstance move society in their particular di lion remains the one real hope

bimd history will show no prefers* debatable, since 'interest' is a value

not share it. We , the thoroughnes

change, i.e, every interest in pres g the status quo, seems to coinci

relatively well with its subjective gro the psychological barrier is wea

interest in change often coincides badly with the subjective gro receptive to the idea o f change. Ind neu, the ideas put forward s the .more desperate the plight of

seems to become. For a treatme

bers. Each group of people bound [her in this way can be said to form ubjective world of big parties

bjective group, or class (In Contrast small principles; sporting contest nty pampiet: a The Irrational sn Politics" spectacular shows; gentlemen's I

o have in common their ideas.) If the is essential reading. Our earlier caution . ments and career opportunities. I ove assumption holds, the class can regarding the libertarian position Should look also at the single reality k

said to have common objective be borne in mind. them : The System, The society In the case of complex mature socie- stands over us and against us, a

ow it was inconceivable to earlier ties, two new difficulties arise for move-

ovement builders that an objective ments aimed at an objective group. even in the midst of change, Firstly, the definition of common objec- tinuously to preserve ltse tive conditions of life - once the easy influence over us. part of the problem - becomes incre-

isticated version, the subjective asingly difficult. Secondly, the real

iahs were dispensed with. The interests of a class, which are to be the

tive group was to become subiec- subjective interests of the movement, tes, but the groups shad

group to itself. The class, out Of are much harder to define in specific into each other. Differen

set of ideas may find d

ogles, would generate its own ces. The same audience may ement. The real superiority of this subjective group to va

on lay precisely in the absence of

Undercurrents 12 .-

possibly inciud eil have our sums h

ean of the id

ty which tolerate They are able t

is it a supetiiciai feature in the se of a bonus handed down to good s and girls, as many radicals like persuade themselves. A liberal

functioning of the mature society. Now this does not mean that the liberal era is permanent, merely that to close it

otion towards authority. We need

mi ls which society imposes. the climate itself is essential to

dreams. People become vaguely that the road does not lead to u

some the paternal hierarchic-commu society of,remote ancestry now stir

it is a time of uncertainty, of c Many weird embryos appear. subjective groups, always p society, grow to unusual pr Older combatants, of definit failed, continue their ritual st tragi-comedy on the stage of !if

ching unsteadily forward,

Alternative Cuitu

who prefer tyranny will become less favour of a social ethic. These people. keen with no one to oppress; most it they can base their values in coin- of those who accept exploitation as mon objective conditions of life, will 'necessary' will review their verdict withsn it. This in turn will further e generate a social culture. with only themselves to exploit: most and consolidate the movement. A

of those who revel in the rat-race will inuous dialectical process dev It may be useful to compare the above find it a duller game without losers to this time with no certain satu with a corresponding assumption keyed prove themselves by,. . level. An alternative culture will to the objective group : Meanwhile, if the key assumption holds. Bourgeois society has called into exis- how would a mere subjective group tence a class, the proletariat, which liy emancipated social has in common its objective relations to the mode of production, and which. so soon as it becomes conscious of these relations, must inevitably triumph over them to create a new. socialist, society.

subjective identity : its people Let it be clear that no breakthrough is i n In the course of a subjective being offered, only a new line of advan- group fulfilling itself, becoming a mo- ce. We still face the same defeating vement, it exerts pressure on the soclal dialectic between the way we are, and framework, A greater or lesser sh i f t the way the world is, which has frustra- occurs ii', the real situation. This applies led so many intentions and predictions, Just as the theory of the objective group requires that it becomes cons- nal arrangements.) Their to CIOUS. becomes a subjective group to n wilt be similar to that of i s , becomes a movement. so the t, rather than its existence. (This tants of a completely sub; theory of the subjective group requires ften obscured by time-lag factors.) that it becomes committed, becomes an objective group to itself, becomes a he movement saturates its subjec-

culture. Just as consciousness has been the Achilles' heel of class theory. so commitment is the Stumbling block of culture theory.

to make their morality absolute, for t

of tolerance to other moralities is tral to the whole concept: the c lion of sociality is incompatible hen the fact of

reluctant, human beings. movement itself. tioh, so it will be declared unw The idea of capturing state power has But most movements reach equilibrium ble to have two or more cultures 4 no place in alternative culture strategy. with society, and then live on for many habiting the same territory. h he goal is to create a social culture years, not knowing their date with des- The exact form that the struggle n- among those who desire one, not to tiny is past, becoming part of the lans- take is difficult to foresee. Like convert the existing society in to, a colonial struggles, it will be wa<i socialist one. dislike it who dares. This from a position of material weakni may sound an incredible statement to and moral strength. It will possi those used to thinking in conventional include phases of defensive violer terms. Some will ask : a How can it be against brutal measures, though : meaningful for a limited number of Now when (and presence of the colony within the doi people to practise social culture, while nant cultures will impose unusual sl the system continues to alienate, exploit to a mild extent an objective group tegic restrictions on the latter. Anor or napalm both them and other victims, s introduces a new real factor to the imponderable is the effect of a h according to its logic ? * cia1 scene. The frame of reference sociality culture on the remain

those concerned, of people in con- This difficulty springs partly from a

population of the old cultures: if t with them, and of society as a

failure to understand what the Pursuit desertion rate from these societies

ole, is altered. Where this frame of exponential, then they will indi and practice of social culture involves. erence is tilted in favour of the and partly from a hidebound frame of

prove paper tigers. Perhaps the rfl ovement's ideas, the result is likely powerful weapon of the alternal

reference concerning the nation State. o be an increase in the size (and culture will be this : it will not seek territory, the meaning of democracy, depth) of the subjective group. Of cour- etc. Some of these areas win doubtless

replace one dogma, one absod se, society Is again adjusting to the morality, with another.

be illuminated in the course of sketching 'becoming', rather than the fact, of the The final outcome will release u j partial objective group, If equilibrium th^ world a new phenomenon: i is reached, that is once more the end voluntary state. Its birth will mark!

shall confine our attention to two of the matter. Except that there will even greater milestone in human hi{ ry than the emergence of the sec! state from the struggle for religii

~a rcou r t Brace Jovanovich

Journal o f the New Alchemists, Shank's Pond Road, Falmouth, Mass.

Penthouse, Aug. 1 C. J. Swet, "A Protot

A.S.M.E. publicati Nov. 1973.

from The Frontiers of

The "May" lectures tak

Recommended Reading

have been described as "connected in

dercurrents 9, there wa on page 12 in the circu of the BRAD 'black bo

court Brace jovan STOP PRESS !

The first run of Pat Gadsby's program

ibuted at random, so there is no way

of the figures for potatoes. For peas, the thiamine, riboflavine, nicotinic acid and vitamin C contents should read 0 09; 0.04, 1.0; and 7, respectively And the missing line should read "potatoes 06;22,2,02,0,003,0.01;0.5and55.

In Undercurrents 8, we stated that an article on Steve Baer's solar house appears in UC6. In fact it appears in UC5, which is now out of print. How Straight i s the Old Straight Track?

decide whether to accept or reject an alignment, so it i s not possible at this point to compare our set of alignments directly with his. We hope to carry a full report of this work in Undercurrents 13

Chris Hutton-Squire Crossinc Your Mind With Silva: How to go about it.

The resuonse to the article on Silva Mind Control last issue was so great that we felt we should print details of how to

I A Correction rnntart them.

And then? Barefoot Doctors in China. 'a clearly And then, since about 1945 or 1950 viable alternative'. medicine has entered i t s hieh-technolom phase, and has become counter-productive' what i s meant to cure i l ls ~roduces them instead. Illich claims th.5 has been parallel- led in e u ~ c ~ t i o n and trdniport. lllich clamif- L C ^ . the Ju~tors ' ill-duinc Lnder the ft-nerd. heading o f iavogenesis(meaning ‘ceas bv doctors') o f which he says there are three kinds: clinical iatrogenesf's' that is, side effects of drues. onerations and investisattons.

today are caused by the industrial way o f life, and are treated by analogues of the verv industrial machines that caused them. ~ h i i ciitcgor, dlso embraces uoctorb' ~ r r t i f i c ~ t i o n i ~ f dcvidn~r or of simple J's- gust with our society as disease; and. most imoortantlv. structural iawoaen- . . esi5' that i i t h e rcinobal t r i ~m the in~u-~c l u l of a l l tt.-,ci)nsi~ilit\ for UCL:SIO!U Annut

hnology medicine man of to

on think lllich has been

trio doctors seem to have latched on though lllich thinks it the least dama

which a lot o f doctors think he's sayin but rather that to make pain somethin always alien to oneself, t o be managed a doctor with drugs or whatever, dimin the scope of life. To live is to suffer, and suffer is to live. Do you want to live " sterile, painless operating theatre, or

and an expectation of total elimination suffering, pain, and death (our unmention- able topic) is to make life a meaningless nonsense. lilich is profoundly serious - though a joker as well.

You know him? Yes, 1 know him fairly well; though what human beins knows another?

Do you agree with what he says? With most o f i t ; though i think it's a shad up-stage for most people. lllich's thinkin i s very tight and very deep. Although m people can understand at least some of symptoms of the disease he is trying to characterise exactly - for example, the mess our own NHS is in; or the constant increasing health demands of the 1aity;or the present state of medicine in the USA or the falling expectation of life in some - . .

social iatrogenesii: that is, medicine' his own health and sickness. western countries. Certainly they prrtvid invasion of society and the mutual re What the individual used to copy with by very good reasons why we should at I forcement of the medica! mode and himself, says lllich, - given some help give him a careful hearing. His prose, industrial mode. Most of our diseases from the extended family, his neighbours, vou, is rather heavy going for some pea

itutions he criticises. , and I think this i s partly justified. H s he provides touchstones by which to it, raised blood pressure, hardening of ge the validity of the various alternat- arteries, peptic ulcers, appendicitis, tw

three diseases of the large bowel (inclu cancer) - that are almost certainly pro ed also by our way of life; not to ment

apart from' North American exp t s and Chinese barefoot doctors, time in history we know just how wear

ical expertise to treating the diseases ollution and oil slicks and Minamata later stage, more of the very expertis

produced the disease in the first plac brilliant expertise, but almost useless certainly expensive, and obviously irr

essionalisation. On one ional. Driving round in motor cars an sitting watching TV helps produce coron- aries; so i f you have a coronary, you'll be whisked off to hospital in double-quick time in a wecial motor car called an . . . . . . . - .--.. .-

cake differently. l i i r \:-?y think cake i s compares ditterent western counuies, ambulance, and )our neart b e ~ i will he u hdt \ve n w d - ;. r !..., - and t x ' t ~ c r c ~ k r . there-"5 no corri.'liflion betwi't-n heafrb and monitnrptf on 3 tpki ision vrffn dnd ,c,

d. From the AMIGOS Kitchen e s I'd hope groups of, say 10 or opie would emerge, interested in

themselves are staunch adherents o f the ng, or giving up cigarettes, or takin gorous exercise, and so on; and the

hope can there be for conventional exh tatory health education?

individual? Well, yes, that in part - from the institution that manages things for you !o the human-sized group inside which you can manage things yourself - with your neighbour. This i s Illich's whole point The institutions of medicine, educ- ation, transport, and so on and so on have expropriated the individual's right to stand on his own two feet: say, to learn a language he wants to learn from those who are prepared to help him learn it, or to manage, with a bit o f help, much of his own illness - or better, prevent it; or get from A to B a t a reasonable pace - say, at up to 20 m.p.h.

But can't we do that now? No, some of us can, some o f us can progr

priving others'of the chance of movin around at a much slower pace - thou one well above walking pace. Of cour in cities the transport institution i sm

drsversbeing brain-washed by the car radio, centre' I mean a viable heart, a livs t y . The third element would be th their coronarv arteries silting UP. lllich's to a community of, say, 5,000 pe MIGOS Help Room, in charge of a nu - . critique, \ou see, is of nt:st~'rn industr'al there ever is , u~h a I i ~ i n g heart toda). Ano -xi\, .ii;ed 3 5 tu40. The IIeip Keom society 4s a whole: hr h.is ,elected meuic- 1 wdnt thr h o l e thing to hdve its structure wo-Id be her ~ilfii. 'e, where she'd .idvise i t ' iusr one ol the mndcs. though nt ¥in ex~i.1 mode of funclsnnini! Jclcrmitied $()me pruplc qulelli mithou1 ~lidkln,; ~ n i ~... ~ ~ . ~ ~~~

thinks a crucial one, to be scrutinised. And just as one cannot separate medicine from the society that fosters i t and that i t suc-

must one do to be healthy? Answer: on must live a healthy life. And living he ily has very deep roots. I t is as simple that, and as complex. And healthy livi nicillin. Because all the successful

Undercurrents 12

and letters, and ahs~rac t s o f letters i n

the same as everyone else. My journal

And what are i t s chances?

larger anti-institution endeavour. Ivan

that much difference - because we live in

The Alternative S

Scotland: "independence without sociali

t ies of wealth and power continue to persist everywhere in the 'Free World' (including Scandinavia). Like Burnett, we would ask how and why a Scottish social democracy can succeed where others have failed. When the question of freedom for Scotland is raised we must ask: Freedom

m whom and from what? In answering se questions we realise that indepen-

dence without socialism brings little more The Red Paper on Scotland. 368 pp. the same preconditions as the Chinese than a nominal change o f government, as £1.6 from bookshops or EUSPB, 1 model. He emphasizes that such a strat- ;he example of ~i~~ shows, Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh En8 9LW. egy for decentralisation can only be viable ~h~ traditional parties have responded

i f combined with altering the structures to ~ ~ ~ i ~ ~ ~ l i ~ ~ with the promise of devol. of inequality. ution, but as McGrath says: "Devolution

"Any study of Scotland today must start Scotland's problems are gaining recop i s a game that Waddingtons ought t o pate from where the people are, the realities of nition, but solutions reflect a superficial (you have gained a minor concession. day to day living, extremes of wealth and analysis of these problems and many are Collect £5 and wait 5 years before your poverty, unequal opportunities at work, based on the popular myth 'from rags t o next throw. Your minor Concession pro- in housing, health, education and comm'.in- riches'- where the discovery o f oil i s seen duced a boring incompetent ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ b l ~ . ity living generally." So begins the Red as Scotland's liberator. But the bulk of the Devolution Discredited. Pay £5 back anc Paper on Scotland. oil industry i s in American hands and the

Deprivation and lack of adequate scoail 'oil boom has not meant increased pros- provisions are widespread throughout the perity or higher living standards for most UK. But Scotland has more than its 'fair' Scots. Rather i t has meant soaring prices, share of social problems and economic inadequate amenities, social dislocation, deprivation and less than i t s 'fair'share of hazardous conditions of work for the housing, educational and employment people involved in the industry. (200 have opportunities, social and welfare facilities died so far in the Nort and general economic prosperity. Succes- according to North Sea Oi sive Governments have classified large mittee). This parallels the e areas of Scotland as 'dev yet the unemployment r remains up to three times hig of the South East o f England times of economic boom. TW per cent o f the Scottish peop lion) live at, or just abov line. One in ten houses in Scotland standard, the percentage the petrochemical industry. He shows working class parents in Scottish Univer- for example, how the pharmaceutical sities is decreasing to a level probably industry in Britain i s present below that of the 1920's' and there is an by mainly US monopoly pri incidence of rickets in Glasgow slums. As anti-monopoly alliance of Richard Bryant's article in the Paper and community groups. T points out, it would take an extra 4 l p per community action runs through the book North Sea. .' person per year to raise Scotland's social and seems to reflect a kind o f neo- services merely to the average position of syndicalism which appears to be growing England and Wales. This situation i s no in Scotland in the form of increased de- ster clearly offers us no solution, for cap! accident it is; as the Redpaper attempts mands for workers' control and commun- alism i s the root cause of Scotland's t o shov?, deeply entrenched and is a result i ty democracy. economic and social problems. Massive of die whole economic and social structure The Scottish experience of deprivation structural change is needed if we are to of the West - a result of the ways in in the midst o f affluence and heightened create real alternatives to what exists nov which ca: i t~ i ism concentrates its Power aspirations, the false promise of a boom and we must not underestimate the prob and in~-t in ients and bleeds whole areas through oil, and alienation from a central- lems - or the potential in contemporary dry w:ihout wen attempting to cover UP ised and bureaucratic Westminster govern- ~ ~ ~ ~ l ~ ~ d , B~~~~ puts it succintly in his the wounds adequately. ment, together begin to explain the recent introduction to the ~~d paper: "what

Th; Highi3nds, where 9% of the popul- dramatic rise of Scottish Nationalism. But appear to be contradictory features of .:*,.Y own 64% of the land, have their share what would Independence really mean. for life today - militancy and of in problems. Carter in his article raises the Scottish people? Independence on the apathy, cynicism and a thirst for change the prob~em of basing asocialist strategy basis o f oil would lead to less independence _can best understood as working for the n!$:la,?ds on land issues. The for the Scottish economy rather than more. people,s frustration with and refusal to power of the Highland landlords is based We would be essentially a single commodity- accept powerlessness, and lack of control on land, dnd any strategy must challenge producingcountry, subservient to the over blind social forces which determine that heki-mciiy. Secondly, the idea o f wishes o f the multi-national corporations their lives. disenchantment which industrial development, equated with high and living on borrowed time, for neither underlines an untapped potential for technology, must also be challenged. He the supply of oil nor the demand will last co-operative action upon which we

Undercurrents 12

pite of recent bombings; and there are wo articles praising the UNB, a revolution-

ary Breton 'nationalist' party which accepts centralised party democracy, and rejects spontaneity and libertarian ideals. The bulk of the articles (such as Bob Purdie on Kitsonism) give a welcome dose of realism, dnd reject the myth of Britain as a country

Apart from one article from Rob Gib- , there is no attempt t o woo the "Scots 5%'. World Socialism i s s t i l l the first aim,

economy and power structure and there i s such a thing as a Scottish culture. All this

The magazine's commitment to the Arts i s real: almost a third of the magazine i s given 10 poetry, a good short story, an interview with the Breton musician. Alan Stivell, an account of the work o f the

aelic poetess Main Mhor reviews of poetry, records and rthcoming issues will covw eatre and include an events

Essential reading for Scottish radicals, be of interest to other Under- ers? Clearly i t i s not for that e readership who throw UP

horror at the merest mention

sources and an extensive letters section ensures that the local readership i s not authoritarian socialism i s in evidence: alienated by crude Marxist dogmatics. ~

Calgacus, however, is clearly aimed at e intellectual Left. This issue i s about

olitics and the Law, an attempt to show w the 'impartial' ,processes of Law are d t o implement Government policy.

tides on internment in Northern Ire-

whose government and army act decently and humanely and which unwillingly accept- cd the burden of Northern Ireland. The line taken is that this i s just the latest in a long line of colonial situations where troops, special powers acts, boot, baton and tor- ture are used t o frighten and control not just 'extremists' but entire indigenous populations. Perhaps we st i l l can't envisage such methods of control in action in Eng- land or Scotland, but it perhaps wouldn't take much in the way of economic or ecological crisis plus a few extremist bomb- ings from left or right to t ip the balance. The editorial ends with a prescient remark; " I t is over 50 years since the tanks rolled into Glasgow and the State deployed the military against striking Scottish workers. It i s unlikely to be another 50 years before we see it again". Not 50 years but several weeks later the Glasgow dustmens* strike was broken by troops. Tanks were not used but if a 'socialist' government and a 'social- i s t ' provost can use troops in strike-breaking, then a future Tory administration mav well he tempted to be a bit tougher. The WHFP also has two excellent commun- i ty papers, the West Highland Free Press and the new For t WilIliamFree Press, each weekly. Subs are £ per year or £2.5 for six months. They're at Breakish, Isle of Skye, Scotland. Mike Grev

LAW

seek to underline its use as a labor- Legal Frameworks Handbook - forcorn- well as financial problems such as raising y for techniques of containment, ' munesandcollectives. 50p from Laurieston money, and has a section of suggestions

ich could just as easily be used against Hall, Castle Douglas, ~irkudbri~htshire. for internal rules for communities. There ellious elements in England or Scotland. 40 PP. are many examples of actual cases o f

MANY PEOPLE are easily put off by communities using the various types of framework, and a set o f model rules for a housing association is included. There is

I understand that future editions will

Undercurrents 11

' . . pseudo-scientific experiments conducted with t he a id of mechanical instruments, w h i c h o n l y prove t h e . - obvious."

--

new consciousness, through meditation, will be able to unite the two. But in movements like TM there is little hope for

Transcendental edita at ion. Jack Forem. science in i t s own right and it must be £3.5 George Alien & Un win. understood by experiencing i t as Teilha

de Chardin and Aurobindo* were able There is an Indian story: After 12 years of do, But when fie author tries to practising it. All meditation is tran ascetic life and deep meditation a yogi us that meditation is good because cer ental: there is no one 'Transcenden found the truth and experienced enlighten- physiologists and psychologists have said tation'. Non-transcendental meditat ment.

ive. There is no need to think in terms of

*Aurobindo footnote

need for him to worry. The western managers o f Maharshi seem to be fulfilling the same role. Reading the 17 page evangelical introduction to Forem's book one can't help feeling that the move- ment is much more interested in perpetuat- ing itself than in the real experience of

impasse - even i f it provides no real str egy for the transition en mass. Despite

already in existence and the world i s no journalistic style there i s a lo t o f infor

religion-and huge ambitious organisati can only obscure the simple nature of meditation. Especially when almost ev

terms of i t s aim - which is apparent! communicate with the man in the st Unfortunately it seems to have been

Undercurrents 12

"200-odd million Americans use more electricity for air conditioning than 800-odd million Chinese use for

World Energy Strategies primary inputs to our economic life. Our (d) renewable sources o f energy should teful affluence has been achieved by be developed; stitutingenergy for labour time in (e) nuclear progra'mmes should be sus-

life as though it were a pended until enough infallible people ee good. I f this substitution i s going to can be found to operate them for the ave to stop or be reversed we are going next few hundred thousand years (a

This excellent book i s hereditary caste o f priests, perhaps? reserves should be used a

to build this year but with long term strategy: what possibilities are open t their local renewable energy sources; us from about 1985 onwards, how ca we choose between them, and wha ( i Third World countries should not

try to develop energy intensive

tious parts. The first chapter, on energy conversion, starts with a particularly strik- (a) rapid energy growth cannot continue derelict Fast Breeder Reactors. ing fact: world energy conversion is much longer; Finally a word about the price of

equivalent t o giving each one of us 50 (b) most technical fixes that increase this book (£2.5 for 131 pa es, 30 of

slaves at his elbow. The trouble is, not energy supply are slow, costly, risky which are blank or nearly so). Comparing

only i s the supply of cheap slaves running and temporary; most social or it with other similar books recently pub-

out, but some people have more than technical fixes that reduce energy lished, I reckon that it i s at least twice as

others: an American has 300, a Briton demand are fairly quick, cheap, safe expensive as it need be. The result will be

separate British edition in partnership say with Penguin who would surely have snapped it up. I got the distinct impres- sion that they weren't too worried about the price. Lovins'himself remarked that the book was s t i l l good value because it contained so much information not avail- able elsewhere! This is just not good enough. Our rulers will only adopt a sane energy policy when public opinion forces them to, So the first duty of a campaign- ing organisation like FOE must be to get the message out as cheaply as possible to

averdge reader coming at the whole thing cold. Our friend Bernard Seal worked with Cliff on the working version, and thev fin-

came up with a version that had all the

i f f Harper, Epic Product1

eckoned it was better to wait But we'

inked in his own divers' to see his etchings of life after

the grainy texture that made it seem extra- homing them into the Pre-existing bu bit of crude but clever plastic surgery with vivid, like old Buster Keaton films. The Cliff asked Will Pollard to do a set of his Rotring The resulting sex-changes t v i e w x in a W ~ V iitraiohtfnrwarff hnt had and he did. But Cliff didn't fancy the added a number of hefty-looking dykes to . . , . - . . -- . . . - . . - , . . . - . . . . - . . . - . - , - . . . -

static, even monumental, character which for some reason and produced a working an already rather androgynous population, e time move slower, 1 suppose i t wasn't set himself. They were more or less dread- but restored the proper balance.

art, whatever, that is; more a kind of ful. Meanwhile I took to wandering round Cliff had also prepared an ired draftsmanship in which virtual erox copies o f the virtually com- sis of the whole series of six comics

in new wasderiv m real things in this world: the people furniture, the buildings, the tools and

machines were all precisely copied. Ail only the first three arc set in the the 'items' were very carefully selected ntry, the last three being about the their visual or symbolic qualities, and although the composition of the pictur was superb, there was little sense o f flo within or between the frames: each was

tableau of discrete eleme ty; Seymours' Self Sufficient in a crystalline, intellectual world of symbols where people seemed rather should they be formal to match the pic- From Nowhere. The synopsis w

mechanical and machines seemed tures? Should they be explicit and heavily separately, and a condensed versi human. hi^ may rather arid, bu litical, or funny and allusive, leaving i t appears inside the front cover of really dug the purity of it all. in parti hints and symbols to get the message Times. Black Wedge in Brighton because there were no words, each fram er? I felt rather stronglythat they should lovely job of the printing, and w was full of uossibilities. and one's fane e like snatches of overheard conversation, to see what would happen.

Undercurrents 12

have grown up together and difficulties are superb and show what could be don arise i f the conventions are not followed. So what should be done in later num Basically, people seem to read the words bers? No doubt Cliff will tread his own very quickly, using the pictures simply as path if he feels he should, whatever any a context. Elaborate drawings and exact says. But we have fallen between two

Ie and dramatic. Messages can be into loving craftsmanship with pretensions need to be an honest to immortality. The attempt to do both carried in symbols and has failed. In my opinion Cliff could not

do real comics without literally changing o misjudge the med- his spots. This would be a waste of formid-

se points. Zipping able talent and (by now) experience, I vote for the Hoch Kultur solution. Any-

er than most comics, so one get

- - -~, . failure. In retrospect i thinkthis arises from a series o f misconceptions about the comic form, but before I get into that, there's the more basic question o f who it 's supposed to be for. There's a phrase on the front o f the synopsis about how the se " w i l l become available to the people'. 5 who are the people? Cliff had a quaint notion that workers all over the count would be queuingup to buy it. Rather touching, really,but in event i t s readership was obviously restricted to freaks and middle class 'intellectuals', i f only on account o f the channels of distribution. But they didn't appreciate it either, by and large. Cliff put his finger on i t one day when he said sadly, "There's some- thine for everybody to hate". And that indeed i s how it seems t o have gone. 11 Apolitical freaks are put of f bv the (the Vietnamese anarchist heroine. the Alternatively, what about the Rupert adapted Russian Revblution poster on the 'armed love' motif on the child's sweater, Bear format; 'with doggerel couplets under

over and the title 'Class War Comix'; the red and black flag on the roof, the each frame? No? Anyway with a text he somewhere and no bubles, allowing the

pictures to speak for themselves. This would also have the effect o f making the

anner. In such context the symbols could become significant and fascin his direction. But New Times is not in

t category, and I think Cliff's extraordin- gifts are better employed in carefully

efore this experience I hadn't-really itself marred by the attempted comic fo ght about what comics were and how The words, and even the bubbles them- worked, although I had been very in- selves, distract one from the pictures and essential vitamin of the Left - the one

rested in them as a medium of propa- prevent one from climbing into the possib- that keeps the juices o f the imagination anda and collected examples such as ilities o f that crisp and fantastic world. flowing and stops us looking mangy and us ' Los Agachados in Mexico, 'Ou Specific efforts to mimic comic conven- losing our teeth - critical but generous

Norman' in Socialist Worker, and t ns (such as emphasis for dramatic effect) visions of how it could be. brilliant 'A Proper Place' printed by come over as merely crass ('We're develop- A footnote for kids. New Times makes Communitv Press in Islineton a coup1 ine a new fuel svstem. based on WIND a reallv great colouring book.

A few people wr

en a complete cut-and-dried design ere and then in UC1 1. One person en said he thought it was a sales mmick to get people to buy the xt issue! in case any other readers

re under the mistaken impression Performance

Up aloft, as part of the working wind generator, we found that it took moderate to fresh winds (roughly 20 mpht before the propeller would spin fast enough to start the dynamo charging. This is in spite

we have n o more facilities tha of the tact that we have a very fast propel- average man-in-the-fitreet. Ind o r with a tip-speed ratio of about 8. which

which should mean that the prop spins at some 750 RPM at 20 mph.

's very' difficult for us t o estimate the mill performs at it maximum windspeed of about 25 mph - i.e.- eed above which we've decided it

nnel, (but then. neither does the man-

As we said last time, our aim was t o winds. Neither do we have accurate d-measuring equipment. But we esti-

possible, since rewinding involves much work. So we decided t o mn

o do, of course)

absolutely no output from the dynamo

s a good idea t o set up a crude tes

Connect up a voltme r as shown in the d

ng current, at 900 R

Tail Vane. We found the damped door closer we talked about last issue had too charge slowly strong a spring. At the moment we're lustusing several thick elastic bands in parallel, but since these perish outdoors. electrolyte solution out of battery a i g~n-id thing to ilo, hut now we'll be fitting a spring soon. Eventually, into a container. Add epsom salt we'll be fixing up a home-made piston solution to electrolyte and pou ciainper, too. back into battery. Charge

The Invertor: We haven't found an amps continuously tor 3 or more days. fivertor necessary so far, because we've (interruption of means starting M ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ , ~ ~ ~ , decided t o use 12V caravan-type tluor- again). When bubbing begins, batteries (.-scent lights, which have their own built- charge,. Incidentiillv this in invertor. They're available from Hal- fords a t about £3 is less than you supplement. like Wind and Wind-

could build them for, ( K ~ ~ ~ are advertised spinners itself, is really worth having, even You strip off all the old wiring for in Win'less World. We run them off two rhough it concentrates on Savonius wind charged 6V batteries in series. The Rotors' *Oth are available from radio works off two 6~ batteries, too, H' Earthmind at Josel, Sagus, California

you want a bigger inverter, CTT have 91350, USA.

several Norelco models available from We'd he interested t o hear how effect- aboutS30. ive readers find these tips. We tried just . unless you really know

,ve hope to have of a ~ 1 y ¥"'din epsom salts, but found it pretty

500W inverter in the next issue. naffective.

Batteries. You can make two 6V batteries out of a 12V by separating it into two halves. This can be done if the battery has lead 'straps' on the top connecting the individual cells.

Electric power from the wind Henry Clews 1973. 29pp. S2.00 postpaid fro

in Vol 2, available from:

Power from the Wind. P. C . Put 224 pp. 1948 Van Nostrand. De of the huge Grandpa's Knob proje rmance test of this mill, an oil-dru the antithesis of scrap technology. y Fisk (of Max's Pot), has designed a i

Wind Power. Vol. 7. Proceedings of indmill described in Technical Repo

Rome Aug. 1961. 480 pp. 1964 I believe its been republished, but ver

hool of Architecture

mercial Windmills

having decided on this type, have done it

Wind section in Energy Primer. diameter sail windmill ($25 for 15 sheet ndcharger pius "lft tower costs £214 Takes you through of Drawings and 20 page construction plus VAT and delivery. Elektro mills sell

.heory, determination of dema manual) and for a 12 f t diameter 3 blad r £70 to £2,235 CTT are hoping to

\C alternator v. OC generator, windgenerator ($1 5 for plans). 00th of andfacture Elektro mills under licence,

gn and feathering techniques, these are really beautiful ! Windworks a hich would bring the prices down, but

rigs for a 'recycled wind gener produce a very comprehensive bibliogra ished by Portola Institute. A on wind ($3.00), all available from: Whole Earth Truck Store, 558 SantaC Windworks, Conservation Tools and Technology,

be . , Menlo Park, California 9 Box 329, Route 3, P.O. Box 134, Kingston,

41so includes comprehensive Mukwanago, Wisconsin 53149, USA. Surrey KT2 6PR. Brian Ford

THERE'S VERY little t o say about the Winco exceot that it's an excellent bottom and a topone, The more turns in

these coils. the slower the charging speed. but a compromise is necessary between wire diameter and current-carrying capacity. For 6-volt work the minimum number of turns per slot is 18 nine in each coil --and 18 s.w.g. enamel or s.c.c. will fill the slot under these conditions. This wire has a listed safe current of 7 amps, but since the current is generated in two parallel paths meeting at the brushes the maximum armature current would be about I5 amps.'

*A winding ot 21 s.w.g. wil amps. and is the slowest wind; recommended for use in this c With care 40 turns of enamell I s.w.g. can he put in each slo 30-36 turns of 20 s.w.g. ename wire is ii better winding for gene It is a convenient s i ~ e of wire to but gooti governors arranged t o operateat 10 amps are a necessity. It is slow enough for 12-volt working. The choice of wire; will depend on individual conditions hut should he between the limits n1entionei-I. Old dynamo field coils provide ti useful source of suitable wire. The winding diagram explains the whole procedure."

We're sceptical, however, i j h ~ u t whether all this tedious re-winii:llâ is really worth the effort we've recently bcgu:; to x-explore thc other alternative to rewinding whi~-h is gearins,. 2nd we think that on balance it is the more attractive option.

-lo:neone recently suggested we should try 'gear belts'. These are like the Vee belts used on cars to connect the fan and dynamo to the crankshaft pulley except that they're not vee shaped. They used special toothed pulleys and heirs with notches which fit into them.

The nice thing about gear belts is that they transmit power with very low friction - we've heard figures as low as 0 per cent loss quoted.

The total amount of friction in the

with gearing, we can probably get th alternator to turn at the high speeds which it will start to deliver more pow than a dynamo,

But Alternators bring another problem.

xperienced with the dynamo on our

out again when it slows dow eory, the 6V cut out and volta gulator (from an old Ford Pop ould do this. but we find it iin't s

e Seni-enbdugh's). which is t o have a d-pressure sensor d small vane whic

perates d microswitch when the wind i trone enoueh More about that next - -

issue Godfrev Bovle

machine - if you can afford £25 plus tower and batteries. It's ournose-built. so there are none of the hassles that plague amateur machines which have t o rely on car generators. It can deliver a maximum of 1 4 amos a t 12 volts in a 23 mph wind with the prop rotating at

900 RPM, so its output is about seven times that of our little machine - but then, i t costs about 20 times as much Ours cost about £ 5, and could've cost almost nothing if we'd scrounged more parts, wheras the Winco would cost at least £35 So you pay yer money, if vou have it, and makes yer choice.

\

This VVinco Windcharger is currently spinning merrily atop Julian Keable's house in West London, not far from the Westway motorway, It provides standby lightingvia an assortment of car headlamps. Julian himself describes the experience of putting it up as "terrifying", but the ordeal doesn't seem to have bothered his sons, Crispin and 'Boppy', judging by the following account of how they helped their father with

the work.

6 We first put up the scaffolding on 31st scaffolding by the base, but he found that March. We had t o tie it t o the building to the base was so strony that it would hold

that we had rlofri for the base of the When this section was bolted in place over windmill to f i t auite easilv. Then we cut the bottom section, the tail was carried U D

f e d of the tower in the garden below, ~ n d used a rope to haul it up. Then dad crawled over t o the other side of the sec- tion we had iaid out for it, and we eased the first five feet of tower onto the roo? (dad was hopine to climb in through one

the tower. Then we put the brdke cable down through a gap in the ridge tiles and down into the attic. The ton of a wdshine- u

up liquid bottle was put round the cable to prevent it leaking. Then we attached the electricity cables to the appropriate places below the generator The uositive cable went down ow Iceof the tower, and the negative down anolheq, and then we fed them hotli up unde; eiich side of n ridge hie and into the house This was so that

of our skylieht<aiterwiirds). ~ f t e r t h a t we the drops oi rtiinvrdter would drip otf put two small sLns under two o f the legs i.abl~1! instedd ol running intn the hous to make it ~'bsolutely level When we had I he elcttricit\ cablch lead tu two 1 2 finished this we bolted the whole thing batteries, wired up in parallel to gi-. down. the capdcity of one 12v bdtlerv. Th

\\hen th15 hii$e section was bolted onto also in the r o o f s p ; ~ ~ ~ , sods to be nearer to the roof we replaced t the windmill. We now hcivc readins light-i bdse was, we chipped by our bed3 powcreil b\ this, and there dre

pages of ournational newspapers. "Save it" is the Department of Energy's war cry in its campaign to engender a sense of guilt in each member of the British public who hasn't got round to filling his wall cavities with foam. who fails to insulate his loft or who takes the car round the corner to the local pub when he could walk.

But what the "Save it" campaign fails to tell the British public is that all these conservation measures would save only a fraction of the energy squandered each year by the last of the big energy spenders: the Central Electricity Generating Board.

in Housing", and it's just been published by Department of the Environment's Building Research Establishment.

The first thing that strikes you on reading the BRE report is the enor- mity of the energy savings that would be possible if this country adopted an enthusiastic policy o f energy conser- vation in buildings alone. The report's main conclusion is that "by undertaking the technically feasible options"(and without any reduction in the environ- mental standards of comfort) "over 15% of the national primary energy con- sumption could be saved eventually by energy conservation in building services".

The minds of CEGB planners seem to be set permanently in a bureaucratic u t which blinds them to any energy futures other than those implying con- tinued growth in electricity demand. This conclusion emerges clearly from some very interesting papers delivered at a recent CEGB Symposium o Long Term Studies. Many of th papers are now available from the CEGB - some. indeed, have been published in popularised form (corn- plete with colour illustrations printed on art paper, entirely at electricity bill payers' expense) in the May issue of the Board's glossy new magazine CEGB Research.

The largest paper is on the "Poten- tial of Natural Energy Sources', and is subdivided into detailed sections dealing with Solar Energy, Wind Power, Wave Power, Tidal Power and Geo- thermal Energy. Other papers deal with Electrical Energy Storage, The Use of Waste, Heat from Power Stations, and the possibility that Hydrogen may replace Electricity.

But some controversial passages from the papers have been edited out, and the paper on the Use of Reject Heat from Power Stations appears to have been suppressed entirely. Requests to the CEGB Library for a copy are met with the reply that the paper does not exist: but Undercurrents has a copy of the original. Its suppression may not be unconnected with the fact that the paper's authors resort to extraordinarily-dubious logic in their attempts t o show that the use of power station waste heat for district heating is not economically competi- tive with district heating supplied by a central boiler. But more about all this in a moment. Before looking in detail at the CEGB planners' curious view of the future, let me turn t o another recently-published energy

This "over 15%" figure consists mainly of an estimated 14% potential saving in the Domestic Sector (housing). Conservation measures in other build- ings (shops, offices etc) were "roughly estimated t o be able t o save 2 t o 3 per cent". To highlight the significance of that 14% figure, let's remember th the Domestic Sector of the nation energy economy consumes 29% o our primary energy (primary ene energy contained in fossil fuels, or hydro or nuclear electricity; as disti from secondary energy, which is that contained in manufactured fuels such as coke, and that supplied by' fossil- fuelled power stations. Two more useful terms: net energy is the amount of energy actually received by con- sumers. Gross energy is the amount of primary energy consumed in the course of producing and distributing their net energy.).

So this is equivalent t o a saving of 14/29, or nearly 50 per cent, of Domestic Energy consumption, by action solely in the domestic sector.

That's quite an impressive saving by any standards. But how's it t o he done? The report begins by looking at the iour;i-'s. .,nd the end uiris. ol prIliiiji> energ) in the U I n 1'872,

^. c o n i ~ i n r J fc.S.7 x 10 12.45 x Io^ kwh) Gigajoules of primary energy. But our nett energy consum tion - that is, the amount we actual y got to consume after losses in distrihu- tiou and in conversion into secondary energy - was only 6.16 x 10- Gigajoules (GJ). So nearly a third of the country's primary energy, 2.67 x 10- GJ, was wasted before anv of us even eot the .Ii,n.c 1.j >?.rcll> l?xve llic : ~ ~ 1 1 1 l d l i m p , ~ i i J I , nigh1 or KC mdiilgi; in tln' i n tu l luxury ( 3 1 . i n iinl~pg.-.! h.,l ~ , ~ l c , r

(ie the difference between gros net consumption) are 7.5% for for coal and 5.6% for natural g (Energy overheads for manufa like coke are considerably highe around 27% -- since their proces requires energy.)

But when you look at the figure the electricity industry, the overhead amount t o an enormous 64%, of wh' only 3.5% was due to the overheads the nrin~arv fuels like coal and oil u tor electricity generation, leaving ii nett nverhedd nf 60 V/, .~ ~.

Putting it another way. of the 2.87 GI of primary energy fed into the elec- tricity generating system. 2.1 GJ was wasted and 0.77 GJ eventually found its vay t o consumers

And qO'V 11 88 GJ) of that 2 1 GJ of waste 143s due t o non-utdisation of wdqte heat trom noner statlon5 This

"energy overheads". In short, the biggest wasters of

energy in the country are not you and me, but the Central Electricity Genera ing Board. Moreover, as the BRE Report makes clear, the key t o energy conservation in buildings in the UK, apart from obvious measures like bette insulation, lies in minimising our

and water heatin

consumption of electricity as we ar The BRE Report takes care t o point out that in Britain:

"The per capita consumption of electricity in the domestic sector is more than twice as much as in the original six EEC member countri Belgium and Holland provide pa a r l y good examples as they share the UK a maritime climate. The domestic sector per capital coosum tibn of electricity in the UK is abo 2.5 times that of Belgium and twic that of the Netherlands".

Energy consumption in the U

Sectors Industry. Domestic, Other Users. (Other Users is as Public Services, Agriculture a Miscellaneous). Thei country's primary consumption are 40%. 29%. 16% and 15% respectively. The BRE Reuort fives the "overheads" . - of each Sector as a percentage of the total consumption in the Sector The figures are Industry 40%; Domestic 66%, Transport lo%, and Other Users 65%.

It is clear that the Domestic and Other Users sectors are those with the largest wastage (sorry, overheads) "Thii; feutiire" savs the Reuort ..... discreetly, "is highly correlated wit public electricity consumption. The Domestic and Other Users s where energy will in general b sumed within buildings, took t thirds of the total production of nublic electrieitv This accounted for 45% of the erosi consumntion of energy in the'?e sectors, although it

tank provided only 20% of the net requ It's interesting to examine exactly

all this waste (euphemistically ocussing on the Domestic sec ed the "energy overhead" by eport gives a breakdown o f t Servants) comes about Very 1

Undercurrents 12 - - . - -- - . -- - . household as follows: Of the average Its first conclusion, in marked annual consumption of 81 GJ, 64% contrast t o that of the CEGB, is that was used for space heating, 22% for the use of waste heat from electrical water heating, 10% for cooking, and generation for district heating "offers, 4% foi lighting, television and similar a considerable potential for energy applications. The important thing savings". to note here is that it is only in "If the present domestic reqnire- supplying that final 4% of household ments for heat and power had been energy that electricity is redly met by combined schemes op necessary. All the other domestic at an overall thermal efficienc energy needs can be supplied by

high associated overhead

. If the existing UK domestic electricity for these services

in the Domestic sec been provided by direct use of inimised, the BRE R 11 fuels, the energy consumption

touches on a number of a onld have been 3 to 4% less", (the 4 per cent, by the way, refers t o

ss national energy consumption: is equivalent t o a 9 t o 12 per

nt saving in the Domestic sector). Solar Collectors, and heat pumps,

favourite techniques of we AT enthusiasts, merit generally-favourable mentions from the BRE.

al input. It can therefore be with superficial plausibility

s the BRE puts it: at pumps powered by electricity

Ted without waste utilisation

liances". (my italics). In other ds, the CEGB might well argue,

yuu use heat pumps it doesn't matter how much energy you throw away up the power station chimney. What this argument doesn't say. of course, is that heat pumps and the use of waste heat make still better use pf primary

notion of a heat pump powered by a stationary internal lor externall corn hustion engine. This approach

Heat pumps, in short, certainly do not have to he creatures of the CEGB grid.

On the subject of t t i c rm~l insulation. the Report makes the point that: "If the existing housing stock had been cavity-filled where possible, if the loft insulation had been improved, and windows douhle-glazed, the U K energy consumntion would have heen 3 t o 4 per cent less, taking d i -~ount of the past evidence that some of the potential fuel saving in old properties with only partial heating would have been taken up in increased comfort".

As for that other environmentalists' I r i . I m i l g m t ' i ~ i o r . 11.: BKI w ) , 11i:it " r t , pr11i:q~;~ i l w ~ , , , I < ~ I I I ~ . ~ : i v ~ t i $ ~ 1, ,nt ~ c r c ~ g < ' r ~ , ~ r ~ i ~ > r < . , ~ t , ~ ~ l

represent a few per cent of the nationiil primary energy consumption", but that environmental restrictions are likely t o limit this potential. Hmminmmm. More about that. anon.

ie use of waste heat

consists of an anaiys' energy consumed in

"The studies reported here show,"

~ i p by fossil-fuelled generating plant, with high fuel costs" possibly comparable) costs of installa- What they're saying, in other words. tion. This would correspond to a fuel

is that in order t o use waste hot water cost equivalent of 9.7pIkWh (at 10% frons power stations it must be extracted intere st ),,, no attempt is made f r o n ~ the turbine at a temperature higher assess the overall energy this is a little less than the than the normal IOU(:. which 1s 100 low savings possible by such meas Lire s.

ed. Tins makes the shermodynamic if iciency of the turbine generator lower. S T it produces less electricity, and tins lectricity muST he made up by electric- ity from another power station. which involves burning more fuel.

Wh-il the authors of this odd piece 01' often vise only the trunk o

ogic fail t o see, presumably because they cannot contemplate an actual fall in

heating from power station (after several recycling processes,

wouldn't need t o run their necessap). And new areas of for ould be grown on land unsustab

riculture. Forests at the mome

Keynes. Solar energy is being used not

heat from steam turbine stations. . . might be competitive for a scheme

60% of space heating requirements.

designed t o operate at a relatively low contend that the maximum conversion temperature, providing the scheme is efficiency of solar radiation t o stored not too far from a fairly high efficiency chemical energy is likely t o be 6% and the ERA'S conclusion at that rim power station to reduce the capital that although certain crops in Britain was that only at an average windspe costs associated with heat transmission". can attain efficiencies of 3 to 4% under exceeding 8.9 metres per second

As for the other C'EGB Long Term favourable circumstances,in practice. Studies, I propose t o concentrate on averaging over a whole year. the most the Solar and Wind sections o f the paper efficient energy crop is likely t o be con- on Natural Energy Sources. partly iferous forest, with only about 1% because wind and solar pourer are the efficiency. i n s t ruc t i on of a monster 3.67 MW most widely and equitably distributed Now that may be a fair summary of rating machine with a 69 metre dia- of the natural energy sources, and so the situation at the moment, but many meter rotor, which would give an offer the greatest potential for utilisa- believe that it would be entirely possible annual energy output of 1 1 x 106 kwh tion by the decentralised society we to achieve much higher efficiencies by (some 3100 kwh per kilowatt of rated have frequently advocated in these such techniques as selective breeding output). pages; partly because the CEGB is more of plants to increase their yield of com- Based on ERA calculations, extra- dismissive of these sources than it is of hustible matter and growing plants in polated with a good deal of guesswork wave power, geothermal power and rich nutrient solution with an enriched to today, the authors estimate a capital tidal power; and partly for space supply of CO; - perhaps in earth-cover- cost of £170/k for such a machine. reasons. For similar reasons. I won't ed solar heated greenhouses like those Such machines, the CEGB suggests. delve into the papers on the hydrogen being developed by the New Alchemists could be employed in two ways, in economy and on large scale energy for use in Northern climates. conjunction with pumped (or other) storage, interesting though they are. But even if 1% is the highest practical storage facilitieslike the installations

efficiency of biological conversion at Dinorwic and Ffestiniog; o r to Solar Energy (equivalent t o 10 k w h per sq metre per supply peak power in periods of The solar energypaper starts with a year), the authors' contention that ex- demand, which would otherwise have short preamble setting forth the vital cessively large tracts of land devoted t o t o be supplied by low-efficiency solar statistics in a fairly uncontroversial coniferous forest would be necessary standby plant at a high cost. way (see CCIOj. t o generate significant quantities of In the latter role, the paper's

It then looks at methods of generat- energy is open t o question. It may be authors suggest, a large wind mach ing electricity from the sun -- solar true, as they suggest, that "the supply cells' thermo-electric schemes su the Meinels' mammoth "power f

the authors argue rather liinel\ tha! elcctiicity nylons scattered about the Report. the figure for the net necessarv ~ .~ . ,

this advantageniialit he offsetby th.', country? electricity co&uniption per househoidi increasing efficiency of standby peak- According t o this year's CKGB ( 3 GJ per home. for running TV, tights

Stiitisticiil Yearbook. then; are 20.950 etc) leads t o a total consuniption of If used in coniiinction with stom@- towers carrying high voltage power on 5 x 1 o9 kwh for the 19 million housc-

facilities, the paper contends th;i[ The main national grid over a total holds in Britain. So our array of wincl- ind power dl t l70;kW would ti-< o u l e distance of 0.786 km. That's one mills on existing pylon sites could

compare with nuck'ar power :I: L:!-:,' tuwer every 3 2 0 metres of grid. on supply half the necessary d ~ m ~ s i i i - ' k W I u ~ ' a i ~ s i : its Ioacl factor i thic i?~~:. avcrcig,,. electricity consnniption in B r i ~ i i ! .

n of its potential energy thai :\ There arc many more towers tli-in And if we doubled the hcigiu oi ually delivered) is low - - ahui~ : this. however. Lower voltage line> each vertical-axis windmill to 200 i;,

0.2 t o 0.4. Nuclear power can ticl'iwv. b e l o w 132 k V ) are now under the con- which would not increase its ui;v!r!:;t. very high load factors beea~zse cd 'lv trol of Area blectncity Boards, and mental impact very much, wi, <.c,~::d low l'uel cost. so w:nd power i.',itinol don't show up in ("FGB statistics. But get four times the power output

t h e figures lor 1974. before the transfer f rom our 50,OUO machines i c twice ase in nuclear fuel of these lines t o the Area Boards look the necessary domestic electricity

c , show that there were. in toto, consumption, and 16'.' of thc Iota! a maior increase in 11 me 15.778 route km of transmission National electricity consumption ::I

fuel costs in nreciselv what the ne ( the n~imlier of towers is not eiven'!. nresenl itself is anticinatine when it advoeali.", [ ? w e assunit the same suacine. liowever.

9). Furthermore, the capital cost such tower; are not so tail, so their £230!k quoted fo r nuclear pow total impact is probably equivalent t o on the optimistic side. the smaller number of larger towers

The paper then at tempts t o den1 we have assumed). Let's assume that

Tile paper does suggest that "one so iu tb~! t o the problem of locating large windinills is t o place them offshore either on towcrs set in the sea bed o r on large buoys.

. . .if necessary, the whole Brnisli electricity demand could be supplied i i i

this way. alheit at far higher cost than a! present, but this would involve fiiidin? suitable offshore sites fo r perhaps <n nnn mi,-hmpi3' .,",""" .,. "-.~...-.. .

strate the environmentalunacceptabiii!y the towers are I 0 0 i t high, on average: (Perhaps recycled oil rigs, after lcI90 of wind power by estimating thi- this is about the height of the towers when the North Sea oil runs out , number of windmills needed t o repi&.> on the main 400 kV t o 132 kV lines. could be converted into offshore

,000 MW central power sla Let us suppose that wind generators windmill platforms?) h e large number o f sites req are erected on the sites of these 50.000 But, curiously, the authors' reconi-

Id mean accepting a lower n 00 ft towers and the towers themselv mendation that it might be worthwhile wind speed, say 6.7 m/s (1 5 nip1 pyluns for the transmission line ding and operating a prototype off-

he most economical 70m diam ossible if vertical axis machin re wind generator "so that the costs achine would have a rated p o ployed. Such tall windmills coul f such a scheme could be more accur-

ut 2MW and a specific output siderahly more attractive than tely assessed", has been deleted from 00 kWh/kW/year. A total of 4 . he towers used a t present ( the picture he version o f the paper available from

machines would he needed , . . tii n the front cover of the July 25 issue the CEGB, and from the "popularised" impact on the environment wuul(! f Science illustrates: I'll be coming back version published in ~ G B , q e s e a r ~ , be enormously greater than that o f ;I t o that in a moment). But one off-shore idea which single 2,000 MW power station an Suppose the windmill is capable of apparently finds favour among CEGB t h e cost would be roughly double Ilia1 100 kW rated power output (based, dreamers is in the realm of Wave Power. f rom the station". quite conventionally, on a 20m2 swept CEGB Research enthuses that ocean

Well, for a start, this calculation assumes area for each of six vertical-axis machines Tx,s,,ne .,FF-V,I 1 that the 2,000 MW station is operating l with a 100% load factor. Let us be mure ' realistic and assume, generously. t h ~ a

the station is nuclear and achieves a load factor equal t o that achieved hy nuclear stations in the UK in 1971-72. namely 75.9% (fossil fuel stations hac, much lower load factors). Then it wi!! produce only '4 of the enerev allower

per tower, and 25 mph rated winds). Such a mill would be capable of

delivering, say 1500 kwh per kW per year ( t o be pessimistic: this is less than the 1800 kWh/kW quoted by t h e CEGB earlier). So one such windmill should deliver 150,000 kWh per year, and a1 50.000 should deliver some 7.5 x 10 4 kWh delivered bv the CEGB last vear.

..".-a -..-a"

"an almost continuous inexhaustible supply o f free energy. I t amounts on average t o nearly 8 0 kW per square metre of wave frontage. This implies the availability within UK territorial waters of more than 120,000 MW - more than twice the C'FGWs present installed *.,..3,.:+..', .-k,-u..J . After discussing the various problems

involved in actually getting any of thi;s 'tree' energy ashore, the paper suggests that the power could be used in silu in a "floating factory" situated beside the wave generators theniselves. The

this comparison ignores, huwe

i

his Beshara School of

i I

fect is the ~acrocosm" 1 1

"Our discourse is with him who has resolution and 1975 Course from Oct. 1st 1975 t o M a r . 3 1 ~ 1 1976 1 55

'A suggestion that could he particu- art! attractive t o the CEGB is Sorensen believes that (water-heating type) of 180 sq

. . urarium separation from sea water. "the traditional manner of growth, area. and wind generators total i "Virtually limitless supplies of characterised by diminishing returns 5 0 sq km in swept area, would Uranium might conceivably be pro- related t o the quality of life, should required. These would take up les duced in this wav and could have a be reolaced bv our imnlementine a than I % of Denmark's land area profound effect o n she future of policy aimed a t stimulating growth nuclear power. Fast Breeders would that will improve the quality of life. Whether we can ever get the tech

nu longer be necessary for nuclear Sorensen further contends that cracy in Britain to start thinking a

fuel economy", (my italics) "compared with nuclear power, the these lines (without the impetus o

So the CEGB doesn't see natural renewable sources such as wind and major jolt t o public consciousn

energy sources like wave power as a sun, which favour decentralised provided by, say, a catastrophi

means of avoiding the need for nuclear utilisation, would facilitate develop- nuclear reactor accident) is dou

power, with all its attendant dangers. ment in the direction of placing more Our gas and Sea Oil It views them as a means for generating emphasis on the quality of life". 'cheap* fuel t o keep its nuclear power programme going, and as a way of avoiding uranium shortages in case all those silly environmentalists succeed in banning the Breeder reactor from stupefaction in the minds of our ru

our shores for ever. (The fact that it It will be interesting to see whe

would almost certainly take far Tony Benn, the new Energy secret is capable of living up to his revolu ary rhetoric. Although in a truly de cratic country no-one man would

in CEGB minds.) tion Benn is uniquely placed t o ex a major influence on the nation's I term energy strategy. Will he take

of Energy and the Central Policy soft option and fall for the nuclear

Review Staff) is clearly rooted in an lobby's lurid promise of unlimited

inability to accept the idea that the power to prolong indefinitely the co

days of the "growth economy" are necessitate increased sumer society, with its false promi

numbered and that a transition t o tion for recycling) t o that economic growth will better t lot of working people? Will he go down in history as the politician w not only polluted our skies with Concordes, but went on to pollute our landscapes with nuclear reactors as well? Or will he seize the opportunity

low-energy society powered by the

, wind-generated hyd t o bite into oil cons

increasingly used as

ond class nostam) ir Mail / Surface Mail ( delete as appropriate).

Subscription Rates for six bi-monthly issues

including postage

British Isles. r United Kingdom, Irish Republic. Channel Islands & Isle of Man

I C3.50 (sctond ddss postage)

United States & Canada $7.50 including airfreight to New Yolk and postage from there by second class mail. Delivery Takes three T O fourteen days.

SURFACE M A I L £2.5 (S6.50 US)

I I AIR M A I L Europe : 13.90 ($9.40 US) Zone A (Middle East S. N.Africa, rouehlv*>: C4.50 I slll.UO US)

I I , . .

Zone B (Africa, India,* eic): £5.0 (s 12.00) o n e C (Australia. Japan etc $1:

I I -

1 5 40 (sl3.00 US)

...................... I enclose a cheque/postal order for in payment 1 Pleaie start my subscription with issue nurnher . I

52.00 per copy, by I Air 3t:iiI 1 0 I'd like to order Back Issues of Undercurrenfs Sl.l[' Per copy, 1 posted to me by Air Mail / Surface Mail.

Surface Mall I enclose a cheaue /postal order for ....... back issues of numbers 1,2 ,3 ,4 , and

I I .................................... 4 NAME

£0.50 (S 1.10) t

(s ADDRESS .................. I

M,75p (s 1 ................... £0.85 (S 2.00) 1 COUNT

I i0.90P (S2.20) 1 SIGNAT"

Send this form to UNDERCURRENTS Subscriptions I

Sciences

on. It is the subj

f the West's cut

to history. Where social thought on t

urban-industrial life refuses to tou

it betrays its essential conservatis

n Tyne NE1 EST.

with shallow understanding

e concerns are yours and i

rdisciplinary study i n a d,

YOUTH subCULTURES ifying youth culture, radical interven-

tion, generational consciousness, method, significance of style, why no girls, doin' nothin', reggae / rastas / rudies, teds-mods, skins-

' ibrary £2.8 ($6.75 USA) ndividual £3.4 ($8.00 USA) ibrary £5.4 ($13.00 USA)

.............. £1.0

CULTURAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF BIR

IRMINGHAM 15

rvival (Vo l 2. 1 . Jan. 1972) h; rticles that contribute to this ei DDD----DD--D-l

A S WF APPT

UNDERCURRENTS BACK ISSUES Magazines worth Pounds-yours for mere pence!

~ I Y windmill Design/ Alternative Tekbnology Sources Guide / , "When an4 source, solar power is a good exampie, is availabl4' in Running Your Car on Gas / Small-Scale Water Power / What's Left abundance, has been used by man in one form or another for centur- bf Alternative Technology? / Stan Gooch reviewed by Colin Wilson / ies, is cheap and easy to exploit and will be around for at least as Have Plants a Secret Life? . . . . . . . . lona as humanity. and the other doends on the ex traction of a rare

"The Heat Pump do& offer one big advantage - the ability to tap hear sources that ham for centuries been out of reach" "1 t's relatively easy to create consumption-altdna fives because we have fairly direct control over the technology of consumption . . . . Cmating alternatives in the sphere of production is not so easy be- cause it'$ .a $pdd thing. . . . and therefore requires mass^~le politicaf action fb &an&, *'

Undercurrents 7. Special ~ornmunicktions Issue Telephone Tapping & Mail Opening: who does i t & how / A Phone Phreak's Confessions / The Government's Doomsday Communicat- ions Systems / TV Cameras Spy on City Streets / The People*? Radio Primer / Switched-on Uses of Ham Radio & TV / Cable TV:Whafà in it for the Media Moguls / AT in the Shade / Did a Stray Missile Shoot Down an Airher? . . . . . . . "A very useful intellipn&gatherfng toot is the prin ter-meter. This device, when attached to the equipment assigned to your telephone at your local exchange, prints out a tape of every number dialled."

"It is a pleasant diversion on a whter evening to discuss surfing with the Honolulu operator or to chat about the weather with the Sydney mra tor. "

lhdercurrents 8 Prince Phili Visits National AT Centre / Eddies' Paranoia Comer / COMTEK AstiVal Report & Pictures / BRAD Community / Organic Living Experiment / Sward Gardening Introduction / The Other London Under ound Radio: Opening Up the Air Waves / Building ~ t h Rammed Earth 1 Multi-blade Windmill Design / Wind Generator ~heo* / ~ermeticism: Technology Needs Transcendence / Plus: a look at Undercurrents finances . . . . . .

I ' . . i t took two more days. . . for the dampened spirits of those who had first camped in that empty field to be lifted by the realisat- ion that COMTE K '74 was slowly becoming the joyful, myss celebrat- ion of people's technology that evefyone secretly hoped i t would be."

"it would be naiw 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 A T movement "

Undercurrents 9

r - Fast & Deadly / End Protesters / Energy An-. n Perils-/ The Terrorists'

metal, its isotopic enrichment is perhaps the most difficuttand expensive process yet developed, is attended by all sorts of dang~?n, all of them serious and some of them hardly understood, and could lead ultimately to the destruction of the world, i t is difficult to fol- low the logic of those who deem the first impracticable and the second the energy source which will save mankind."

'Ephemeral figures, quietly shot, their bodies burned - was this the end of ^he European Freedom Fiyhurs and their,Peopie¥ Bornla?" .. , .

. Undercurrents 10 " . <

Milovan ~ j & s / Industrial Slavery Can Now End / Nuclear Protest - Builds up Steam . . . . "Trees are solar collectors . . . so the simplest way of obtaining solar heating is by burning brother wood. The only economically-viable installation is a well-in formed Dl Y design using ready-made collector plates ori#nally deswed for domes.tic cen tral heating - radiators in other words."

. .. the stmggle for social change cannot be waged with the ballot box, nor yet with the gun. The altematiwe culture is happening. Or rather, i t is trying to happen. "

Undercurrents 1,l Nuclear Nightmares Come True / Bee Keeping / Back to the Land : What happened in the '30s / Mysterious Energies: the Hidden Secrets of Anciem Britain / Building with Compressed Subsoil Blocks / Wind Power Special Feature: Background Theory & Part I of the Undercurrents-LID Wind Generator Design / New Methane Digester Design / The House That Jaap Built -" an Autonomous Dome in Holland / Mind Expansion: An Evalua- tion of Psychocybernetics and Silva Mind Control / Getting Your Goat: Goat-keeping Demystified / Towards An Alternative Culture - part 11. . . " I t is chastening to realise th6 gulf which lies between oneself and even elementary though t control. *'

. . . we should realise, when thinking our Way towards self-sufficiency, that i t will be difficult to make the system work at the macro-socio- economic level i fwe do not, at the same time, consider radically re- structuring the entire economic system. Wtf1wt this more radical change, well-meaning philanthropy can lead w (or* a disguise for) incipient