The Digger No.12 February 1973

R obin H ood magistrate lets D addy C ool o ff drug bust

ISSU E NO. 12 F E B R U A R Y 10 - F E B R U A R Y 24 3 0 CENTS

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At last the 1972 Cartoon Supplement! The Digger’s

Two broadsheet pages of original side-splitting funnies and pungent social comment... by Digger readers. Pages 6 and 7.

Y ou can feed it, b u t don’t tou ch Unmarried mothers, today as yesterday, put up with the humiliation and moralising advice of institutions for a variety of reasons. Some because they can’t face the shame close to home, some because they’re poor. Helen Garner talks to some who’ve been through it, and to some of the women on the other side... the Matrons. Page 4.

Sunbury : a festival o f flies and worse Jenny Brown claims

Sunbury promoters (Odessa Promotions Pty. Ltd.) were lax on facilities. A reporter who spent the long weekend behind the stage describes Sunbury from the $2.00 hill. Page 9.

BRITAIN'S LONGEST CRIMINAL TRIAL EVER The trial of the Angry Brigade - supposedly eight radical London men and women in their twenties, took 111 days and cost between 1 - 2 million pounds. It was hardly mentioned in the British press - and even less publicised in Australia. Why? Because authorities $re scared the fashion of bombing important buildings roughly once a week might spread. Page 3.

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BLANK PAGE FOR ISSUU VERSION ONLY

N e w fo n g calls o n B r y a n t to q u it:

M ag istra te clears D a d d y C ool:

Even his stenographers are white by Virginia Fraser

G ordon Bryant is n o t considered a raging success as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs inside the Aboriginal movement. S om e w ant him to step dow n, so that the Labor caucus can v o te again for th e portfolio. John Newfong, the editor of Identity — which is supported with a government grant — is a former journalist with The Australian and was the first black General Secretary o f the Federal Council for the Advancement o f Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Newfong told me he thought Bryant should quit. “This particu­ lar portfolio calls for more progre­ ssive attitudes,” he said, “and there are other men in the Labor party who are much better equipped both psychologically and emotionally to come to terms with the problems than Mr. Bryant, and who would be more likely to have Prime Minis­ terial backing and constructive prog­ rams to offer. “ First the fact that Bryant refused to take me on his tour, saying that his itinerary was already worked out, and that there was no room. He took 24 journalists and his son.” The refutations governing VIP air­ craft state that wives are the only member o f a minister’s family who may accompany him on VIP flights. Then he arranged for me to go with Dr. Everingham on his tour and I informed him that the Minister of Health’s tour was of secondary in­ terest to the editor of an Aboriginal’ magazine. “The point is that Bryant at no stage has given us any o f his press releases. Also he wrote to me say­ ing it would be very difficult for him to arrange for me to go on these flights in the future. Then on the second trip he took Eric Wicks the editor of Smokesignals which is a very second rate publication which used to be the official organ of the Aborigines Advancement League but isn’t any longer. It is printed at Greensborough Press in which,” New­ fong alleged, “ Bryant’s wife has a controlling interest. [Ms. Bryant asked to comment on this said: “I’d be very happy to have a contro­ lling interest in any press.” Asked if she could give a yes or no answer sfce repeated her statement.] “He refused to see me — contin­ ually. He said he would see me after the cabinet meeting last Tues­ day. I was told by his office that he was still in cabinet at 5.30. I was invited to the Prime Minister’s press conference where I discovered that cabinet had finished at 5.00. I rang Mr. Bryant and said I’d be asking why this had happened, in the biggest quarterly in Australia and the only black national publication. Identity is distributed nationally and to overseas countries including America and England. It is sent to

February 10 - February 24

Thum offers his acres I’m a 29-year-old ex-American counterculturist. . . anyway I’ve got 109 acres of far out country near Margaret River, and I want to turn 10 other people on to it. In other words, eleven shares altogether which is about 10 acres a p ie e e .. . I paid $8000 for the lot and one share will sell for $750. All names will go on the title, or we can form a company by incorporation (scary word). The land is 80 acres of full-on bush — ’roos, kookaburras, racehorse lizards. . . about 30 acres were cleared four years ago and have grown back with young gum and peppermint trees; there’s about four

embassies, to newspapers — and has been quoted by the London Guardian, the New York Times, and the black American magazine Ebony — and it is sent to the press secretaries of the Prime Minis­ ters of other countries including India and Ghana. “So Gordon Bryant is very fool­ ish,” says Newfong. Newfong said that Bryant demon­ strated the paternalism of his gene­ ration, and that after 17 years in the movement he should not have needed to go on a fact finding tour “and if, as he maintains, such fact finding tours are necessary for his staff then he has the wrong staff.” “There was no reason why the whole of his personal staff could not have been Aboriginal. But his press secretary is white, his private secretary is white, his Melbourne secretary is white — a man who was formerly with Mr. Whitlam’s office, and even his stenographers are white. “All the money spent on Aboriginal Affairs Administration goes in salaries to white men, and there are plenty of Aboriginal people who could have filled these posit­ ions. ! “Mr. Bryant has made much of his involvement in Aboriginal Affairs during Labor’s period in opposition. But in 1970 he fought very strongly against two motions which would have given Aborigines control of FCAATSI.” The two motions — one moving an all black executive, the other that only blacks should vote and whites should be limited to associate membership — were lost on a 48 to 48 vote, when a two thirds majority was needed to pass them. “He has always seen FCAATSI as an extension of his platform, and much of what he’s done has been to bring himself to the attention of Labor hierarchy. “When people have nowhere else to go they go into Aboriginal affairs; the old attitude seems to persist that Aboriginal ^Affairs; is a good springboard for people with political aspirations.” Federal ALP member Manfred Cross is Newfong’s choice as a re­ placement for Bryant. He’s consid­ ered to have been consistent and not to have reneged on promises. He has held the seat of Brisbane since ’61, has been a member of FCAATSI, convenor of the Queens­ land Council for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, and an ad­ visor to the National Tribal Council and Abschol.

A n outbreak o f even-handed justice

STOP Help Save The Youth of America D O N 'T BUY N E G R O RECO RDS (If you don't want to serve negroes in your place of business, then do not have negro records on your juke box or listen to negro records on the radio.)

The screaming, idiotic words, and savage music of these records are undermining the morals of our white youth in America.

Call the advertisers of the radio stations that play this type of music and complain to them!

Don't Let Your Children Buy, or Listen To These Negro Records For a d d itio n a l copies o f th is circular, write

CITIZENS' COUNCIL OF GREATER NEW ORLEANS, INC. 509 Delta Building

New Orleans Louisiana 70112

Permission is granted to re-print this circular Digger accepts the Citizens’ Council’s invitation to reprint this circular, which Ross Hannaford picked up in Louisiana. Meanwhile, we breathlessly await the return of Ron Cobb from Indonesia.

Newfong: “Manfred Cross as min­ ister designate suggested that leasing of the land in the Northern Terri­ tory be stopped and much of what Bryant is doing now was in the planning stages then. “I think Cross is a good, straight man, and the movement is now sophisticated enough to create a situ­ ation for the minister to use if he wants to do anything. We have to create the fuel for his fire and I think Cross is a man who can use this.”

Twilight zone New York (UPS) — According to the U.S. Television Bureau of Ad­ vertising, TV fans set an all-time record in November — an average of seven hours and four minutes in front of the screen per day. The bureau cites November’s re­ cord as the highest monthly rainfall in history as one reason for the increase.

acres of wild kangaroo paw, wild blackberries, two winter streams, it’s fenced, and good Henry the Pole down the road came for a visit and ploughed a vegetable garden while he was here . . . There’s one lawman for 60 miles radius! Write if you’re interested — people who would really dig getting into the country. Phil Thum, Box 54, Margaret River, 6285, WA

O ral assault Once upon a time a little girl with a love of fun was suddenly attacked by that dreaded disease of the big night, cystitis. Her urine scalded, and even drew blood; and, she lost her love of fun.

Address letters/telegrams to: The Digger, P.O. Box 77, Carlton, Vic., 3053

After horrors at the hands of doctors who kept telling her how dirty she was — at 19 — she decided an alternative cure had to be found. To relieve the urine’s sting she took 8000 milligrams of ascorbic acid in 10 hours (Vitamin C tablets of 250 mgs were melted in hot water). Following this initial shock to the nasty bugs in the tracts and canals, she assaulted them for one long month with three tablespoons of cod liver oil a day, lots of plain yoghurt, and wheatgerm (all taken orally folks). What a cure! Not only did she recover her sense of fun but the vitamins increased the appetite for it.

So, lovers, get with vitamins. [A true story by C. Lane, Glebe, NSW, and a free ad for Adele Davis’s L et’s Eat Right and Keep F it./

W ainer’s stratagem Dr. Wainer’s dissatisfied patient (Digger no. 10, Jan. 31st) may be giving the most accurate description of Wainer’s abortion referral service yet published. However, the facts could be interpreted more charitably. If Dr. Wainer refers only to one

Rat arrested at Capitol Washington (UPS) — President Nixon was inaugurated for a second term on January 20, and over 100, 000 people turned up to protest the event. Formed together in groups under banners of the National Peace Action Coalition, YIP, SDS, Viet

The winds o f justice blow a sw eet refreshing breeze through the austere and m usty environs o f Prahran’s historical court­ house w hen Kevin O ’Connor, stipendiary magistrate extraordin­ aire, squats on his judicial bench. The craggy faced, bespectacled In the same session two young dealer of law has developed a mode men, hair flowing past their shoul­ of bizarre gratuity to heads, freaks ders and wearing tattered jeans and and others without flash suits and shirts, fronted Mr. O’Connor on deep pockets. charges o f stealing goods from their For Kevin rides his thundering last flat. steed of justice through the stunted The men, one a pop muso and forest of legal and illegal complex­ both married with children and no ities like an aging but very modern regular employment, told Mr. O’Con­ Robin Hood. nor a touching tale o f woe. To put it simply he robs the rich The learned magistrate asked the to pay the poor. police informant how much rent And to the rapidly growing the men had paid a week. legions of unfortunates o f the coun­ “Thirty dollars,” said the police­ ter culture who clash with the law in man — a husky uniformed const­ the quaintly hip and cosmopolitan able. crash pads of South Yarra, Prahran “\yas the flat worth it?” asked and Malvern this is indeed a godsend. the magistrate. Expensive-suited businessmen with “No sir,” said the policeman. old school ties and glib tongued With that Mr. O’Connor lifted barristers have become the finan­ his glasses, granted the young men ciers of the hip’s poor box treasure good behaviour bonds and ordered trove. that they take $30 each from the Pleading “no convictions, no court poor box. clashes with the law, I am respect­ Best was still to come. able, I grew up on the right side of A young man was charged with the tracks,” these pillars of society have accepted bonds for drunken the piffling offence of leaving his driving offences and other minor keys in the ignition of his car while the car was stationary. offences. “ Fined 10c,” boomed the magis­ And so that justice not only seems to be done but is done these benev­ trate as police officers and journos olent gents have been ordered to gaped in awe. In the course o f the aftembon. pay sums of up to $250 to the the magistrate dismissed more char­ poor box. ges against denizens of tfie counter And just as quickly this money has been passed on to long-haired culture — including one case because defendants who have confided their an independent witness had been domestic and financial troubles in interviewed but not called as a pol­ ice witness. the learned magistrate. Mr. O’Connor also scored with A few recent examples might show Digger readers that all is not the counter culture when Daddy lost in the courtroom o f honor Cool, Mummy Cool and a Baby Cool appeared on drug charges. where Kevin O’Connor pounds no Mr. O’Connor dismissed the char­ one-sided gavel. A middle-aged company director ges against Mummy Cool (Pat Wil­ with a Brighton address was charged son) and released her husband Ross, with two drunk-driving charges after lead singer of Daddy Cool, on a bond for charges which included an observant policeman caught him pissing on a Toorak tree. possession of cocaine. Represented by the eternally deb­ Former Daddy Cool member onair Frank Galbally, the company Harry Brus was also released on a director beat one charge and was bond. Anyone who knows the temerity granted a bond on the other char­ ge — because of his past good char­ to claim they' have been ripped off acter. by Daddy Cool could take solace The magistrate ordered the com­ iin the fact that Mr. O’Connor order­ pany director to pay $250 to the* ed Wilson to pay $200 to the poor poor box. box and Brus $25.

Vets, and Women Striking for P§ace, the protesters were largely unseen and unheard outside of Washington because of a special directive pro­ hibiting signs and outward expressions of disrespect at the procession. Biggest rally was NPAC’s, whose Trotskyist-controlled organisation has gathered widely diverse support with their slogan “End the war now”, in­ cluding support from those who be­ lieve an end to the war will make everything all right again. On the other side of Nixon’s parade route were the Youth Inter-

national Party and Students for a Democratic Society. S.D.S., now con­ trolled by the Progressive Labor Party, was in Washington as the vanguard movement to protest rac­ ism and genocide. Yippies and Zippies came as “ Rats for Nixon”, com­ plete with “ Ratsketeer Ears” from Disneyland, and a 30-foot rat float named Milhous to be pulled by the tail. The rat was captured by some of the ten thousand cops and three thousand troops who were also in Washington for the President’s In­ auguration Ceremony.

abortionist, it nay be that the abor­ women get a better deal than she The article was written from the tionist depends on him for custom, got herself? Will she be like nine out outside looking in. I’m on the inside and that this could become a lever of ten women who- grumble a bit, looking out. I’m a male nurse. for Wainer to use to force a drop in and then try to forget the whole The minute I step into the ward, fees, and a rise in quality of services. thing? Female apathy is a bigger bar any ward, I go “click” . . . I’m now Possibly Dr. Wainer’s stratagem shows to repeal than male indifference. If doing a job. more courage than common sense: men had babies, the law might well My virgin thoughts on nursing nobody, but nobody, dictates to a change; women have babies and abor­ were beautifully idealistic. I kicked full-time abortionist of long-standing. tions but they subside into indiff­ myself in the teeth by thinking. I High prices and poor services are erence once the immediate problem soon learnt when, where and how to switch off. as much a part of medical abortion as is passed. of back-yard practice. Indeed, bad Beatrice Faust, I’m alive, if I think about all the doctors are more dangerous than President, nursing I’ve done and my motives I’ll back-yarders because the medical pro­ Abortion Law Repeal Association. just have to crawl into my brain and die — I want to live. fession covers up for its members. TO JOIN ALRA: Send your name, There are abortionists now practising “Alex” talks like he’s the one who would be promptly de-regist- address and $3.00 ($1.50 for stud­ godly freak who, because he’s a ered if they made as many mistakes ents) to P.O.Box 135, Carlton, 3053. freak, can talk about the situation. FOR PREGNANCY COUNSEL­ I’m just as freaky — shit, a dying in tonsillectomies as in abortions. The back-yarder has been an anachro­ LING: Ring 941.1630 or 9^.1549, man, intubated, with catheters and 7.30 - 9.00 pm, from Feb. 5th. IVs and monitors freaks me out too nism since World War II. One sus­ but it can’t be looked at objectively pects that doctors encourage the ‘cause they’re alive too. Only just. myth of the back-yarder as a way of And many should be dead, but some distracting attention from their own shouldn’t. negligence. The only long-term solution is To talk about a situation and complete repeal of the law pro­ not be in it is like — well it’s just not hibiting abortion. true. After writing her pungent com­ Just read “Plugging in on the Murray Masters, ments on Dr. Wainer, what will this Surrealistic Telephone” (Digger, Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital, anonymous abortee do to help other number 11) and I’m very confused. Kalgoorlie WA.

Psychic battery

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The Digger ing for an hour, having been refused admission. Peter Faris tells the story from the outside. When he and the other three lawyers received Dixon’s mess­ age, they went straight to Customs House, but as it was well after office hours the building was locked. “It’s a high, new building, just like a fort­ ress/” says Faris. Next to the metal shutters barring entry was a small intercom device through which the caretaker can be contacted; however they received no co-operation from him. “In fact,” adds Faris, “you’re lucky if he deigns to speak to you.” While they were standing in the street the top man at Customs House, by the name of Donovan, came out through a gatevay in the metal shutter, carrying a briefcase and obviously on his way home. The lawyers explained the situation and asked him to admit them. He asked for their identification, retorted, “I’m not gang to let you go troop­ ing through the building” , and went home. They rang Customs House from a street ’phone and reached the man in charge of whatever was happening inside the citadel; he promised he’d be down shortly then rang off, and when they called again the engaged signal indicated the ’phone was off

the hook. Eventually two men brought Dixon downstairs to the street. Faris recognised one of them, but both refused to give their names. “I find it impossible to believe,” says Faris, “that Customs officials have the right to detain a person against his will, completely at their discretion, without making an arrest. “It’s well known that the Federal Narcotics Bureau has wider powers than the state police — wider powers of arrest, and of search without warrant. In fact it’s common in dope busts for the Commonwealth cus­ toms men and the state drug squad to raid together. The state police get on to the premises without a warrant, under the aegis of the fed­ eral men who aren’t required to have a warrant anyway. Because the customs men aren’t police, they can act only on customs matters — for example, even if there’s a pound of dope in the place, unless the person admits that it’s imported, strictly speaking it’s nothing to do with customs. But the state drug squad can then make an arrest, although they’ve actually made an illegal entry. “This Dixon business was an ext­ remely bad public service perform­ ance. I’d like to hear the federal government’s explanation for it. At

Leary had been playing global hopscotch ever since his escape from the minimum-security prison at San Luis Obispo, where he had served four months of a one-to-ten year sentence for possessing pot in Orange County. Hë was broken out by thé Weather Underground and flown to Algiers, where , he went to live, with Eldridge Cleaver’s International Sec­ tion of the Black Panther Party. He left Algeria for Switzerland in 1971 after Cleaver put him under house arrest. The Swiss government refused to grant Leary asylum but also refused extradition requests from the U.S. Department of State, which was

“working in cooperation with the State of California”. Leary was al­ lowed to stay in Switzerland until the end of December. He spent the first half of January in Vienna working with the Wiener Film Kollektiv, which is making a movie on drug addiction, and living at the Imperial Hotel. Under Aus­ trian law he could have stayed there three months without a residency permit, but on Sunday, Jan. 14, he flew to Kabul, the capital of Afghan­ istan. There he was spotted by an agent of the U.S. Narcotics Bureau. On Tuesday, Jan. 16, the State Depart­ ment announced in Washington that Leary was in Afghanistan but that Afghan authorities intended to expel him. He was expected to be sent to the United States, despite the fact that “formal extradition channels are not open”. (There is no extra­ diction treaty between the United

States and Afghanistan.) It was, not surprisingly, an accur­ ate prediction. The next day, Jan 17, the Afghan government expel­ led Leary from the country, repor­ tedly on the grounds that his assoc­ iation with drugs was deemed “not beneficial to the national image.” (This is more than slightly ironic, especially since the Brotherhood is charged with shipping massive quan­ tities of hash from the primitive Middle-Eastern kingdom). Afghan authorities seized his U.S. passport as an “improper document” and the U.S. Embassy issued him an ident­ ification card good only for travel to the United States. He was placed in the custody of two American narcotics agents. * At this point the American govern­ ment still had only a somewhat tenuous hold on Leary. The two agents had him, but only for as long as he was forced to remain with

them, since they could not arrest him until they returned to the U.S. Fear­ ing that he might try to secure asylum at some stopover point on the return flight, the agents tried to ensure that he would not be allowed to deplane outside the U.S. There are no direct flights from Afghanistan to the U.S., however, so they had to take their chances with a stopover in London. Leary boarded the plane for Lon­ don the same day, accompanied by the two agents and a friend, 16-yearold Joanna Harcourt-Smith. Once in London he was held incommunicado by British authorities until his Los Angeles-bound plane was ready to leave. Later Harcourt-Smith was quoted as saying the British had told him he could go to any country he wanted — but he had no passport, so that was impossible. When he next touched down he was on United States soil, under arrest.

three mentally-retarded boys w ith broomsticks at Willowbrook school in New York. Half of the 2500 elderly in Maryland mental hospitals need only glasses or hearing aids to be “normal” again. And the story of Michael Morerro, the story which precipitated an MPLP sit-in at Belle­ vue Hospital. Michael was brought to Bellevue by his parents Dec. 23 for psychiat­ ric observation. Six days later when his parents came to visit, Michael was dead — and had been for three ients are sitting around the cramped days. He was not an addict, yet his lower East Side headquarters of the death was caused by an overdose of Mental Patients’ Liberation Project methadone. (MPLP), each with his or her own MPLP, like many other mental horror story of the time spent patients’ groups, was formed to give “inside”. support and help to mental patients And the walls, plastered with as they are discharged and to abolish newspaper clippings, tell the story, . involuntary commitment. And in the too. A 91-year-old man, committed 18 months of its existence, MPLP in 1950 without trial, freed after has gained the release of over 50 22 years in New York state mental mental patients at their request. institutions. $35,000 damages awar­ The 18 months of meetings has ded to a former mental patient also served to move MPLP to a left­ locked up for 15 years without pro­ ist political analysis. “Psychiatry is per treatment in Tallahassee, Fla. another form of political and social Two attendants accused of beating control, the government’s way of not

looking at itself as a social evil,” says John Parkin, president of MPLP. “Insane is the word for behaviour which deviates from the values of the ruling group. It’s a way o f locking people up without proceedings and without rights. When you’re consider­ ed a mental patient, they can do any­ thing they want.” That seems to be exactly what happens. Shock treatments are regular fare in mental institutions, castration is coming back in for continual sex offenders and punishment is regularly meted out in the form of prohibiting visitors, showers or phone calls. Violent patients are wrapped in icepacked sheets to calm them. “You are a human being and are entitled to be treated as such with as much decency and respect as is ac­ corded to any other human being,” reads MPLP’s Bill of Rights, which demands the right to decent medical attention, as well as the right to re­ fuse treatment and medication. One of the demands at the Belle­ vue sit-in was that it close down its biological unit, which is connected with New York University. NYU re­

searchers do free experimental work for the pharmaceutical companies by testing new drugs on mental patients, often without their consent. The mental patients are a motley lot. Many parents have committed children ^ h o smoke dope, have long hair and beards or are organic food cultists. One young radical was committed for having “hallucinat­ ions of Vietnamese people dying” . The vast majority o f mental patients are the young and the old: the young because they are unable to promote any kind of social struc­ ture which meets their needs, the old because they are non-functioning people and America destroys any­ thing non-functioning. So mental patients are the victims of the real problem —* society. Pov­ erty drives people crazy, and you’re mentally ill if you revolt. “The poor don’t need drugs, they need money,” says David Kane of MPLP. “But chemistry is a quick solution in America — you won’t see the rats if you’re high.” MPLP has issued a strong state­ ment against drugs. It specifically

points to Thorazine, a tranquilizer used on mental patients, and Ritalin and Amphetimine, which are being fed to children like candy. Thorazine was advertised as the “chemical straight jacket” when it was intro­ duced in the ‘50’s. Ritalin and Am­ phetamine are prescribed to ‘‘hyper­ active” and funmanageable” kids through the schools to pre-school children down to two years old. The statement also makes a strong indictment against “community men­ tal health” programs, which serve only to push legal drugs. MPLP is not the only group that’s radicalized. Rough Times (Box 89, West Somerville, Ma. 02144), an un­ derground paper commonly read by radical therapists and former mental patients, recently printed a collec­ tive position paper which began: “We recognize, support and participate in the inevitability o f the w orld­ wide socialist revolution.” “So they gave me a lobotomy,” Bill continues. “Now I have no sex urge. If I get excited, I get all con­ fused. I have to live a nice quiet life.”

M elb o u rn e an arch ists su rvive bu st:

Customs came w ith flares Anarchists at Fitzroy’s Free Store believe that a paid informer was res­ ponsible for the visit they received from Federal Narcotics Bureau off­ icials on Tuesday 30 January. Late in the afternoon of that day, three Customs men “nattily dressed in flares” came through the store to the living quarters behind it, Showing an open warrant to the four people present at the time. Two other men entered by the back lane. They appeared interested chiefly in the affairs of Paul Dixon, whose room they politely insisted upon inspecting. Dixon reports that they made a thorough job of it, checking out his drawers, reading his letters and for some reason commandeering his taxi driver’s licence, which subse­ quent ’phone calls from his lawyer have not succeeded in winkling from their grasp. It appeared that they were looking for narcotics. They didn’t find any. The narcs then asked Dixon to go along with them for questioning. He refused to go until he had contacted

Postal Address: PO Box 77, Carlton 3053 Telephone: 347-2782 (temporarily). Postal address: P.O. Box 77, Carlton, Victoria, 3053. Editing: Phillip Frazer, Bruce Hanford, Helen Garner. Administration and circulation: Garrie Hutchinson Advertising: Terry Cleary Artwork and layout: Ian McCausland Reporting: Jenny Brown, Colin Talbot, Virginia Fraser Subscriptions and typesetting: Sue Cassio Sydney office: Editorial — Jon or Ponch Hawke's. Advertising— Michael Zerman. 15 Avenue Rd., Glebe Telephone: 660-6957 Distributors: New South Wales: Allan Rodney Wright (circulation) Pty Ltd, 36-40 Bourke Street, Woolloomooloo, 2021. Telephone 357-2588. Victoria: Incorporated Newsagencies Company Pty. Ltd., 113 Roslyn Street, Melbourne, 3003. Telephone 30-4222. South Australia: High Times (Vic­ toria) Pty. Ltd., C/- Mother’s Book Farm, 1 Corammandel Place, Adelaide. West Australia: P. and H. Redman, PO Box 3, Palmyra, 6157.

have shown less control had there been fewer onlookers. Finally, he went quietly, to prevent arrests for obstruction and assault. At Customs House Dixon was ushed into a room and questioned y a man who was carrying a large blackboard ruler of the type used by teachers. This person, according to Dixon, behaved like a headmaster, pushing him against a wall, brandish­ ing his ruler and questioning him closely about a subject of which Dixon was ignorant. Dixon repeated­ ly asked for a lawyer to be called; his request was refused. After an hour’s interrogation the Customs man said that he would continue his investig­ ations elsewhere, and released Dixon without laying any charges. When Dixon was taken down­ stairs he found four lawyers, includ­ ing Martin Munz and Peter Faris from the Fitzroy Legal Service, who had been waiting outside the build-

Leary turned in by Afghans

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high bail figure was set last August by an Orange County, Cal., judge after a grand jury indicted Leary and 45 other reputed members of the legendary Brotherhood of Eter­ nal Love, a loose commune of acidfreaks in California hounded by cops as a huge smuggling conspiracy. He faces a criminal fugitive in­ dictment for his 1970 escape; a 19count indictment (possession of pot, conspiracy to smuggle drugs, etc.) stemming from the Brotherhood bust, and state and federal tax evasion charges for non-payment on income supposedly received from the Broth­ erhood’s dope-smuggling activities.

M en ta l P a tie n ts' L ib e ra tio n P ro ject:

Back numbers Back numbers of The Digger 1-11 are available from the office for 45 cents each. Send postal order or cheque to: Back Numbers, The Digger, P.O. Box 77, Carlton, 3053.

O ut o f the cells and into the streets by Ron Lichty New York (UPS) — “They gave me a lobotomy,” says a man sitting across the tiny office from me. “I was in a mental hospital for nine years and I started screaming that I wanted out, so they gave me a lobot­ omy.” “They had to lock me up,” Bill continues. “It was after the war (World War II) and I couldn’t take care o f myself. I didn’t have money or a job. They saw I was a veteran. I’d fired guns. It must have affected me, right?” Twenty other former mental pat-

Twelve months worth of The Digger, 26 issues, will set you back $7.80. Unless you come under one of the following categories: OUT-OF-TOWN SPECIAL: If your postcode is 25 miles from a capital city, you can have one year’s subscription for $5 all up. QUEENSLAND SALVATION SPECIAL: If you live in Queens­ land, the odds are you’re not reading this unless you’ve already subscribed, given the effective ban o/i The Digger by distributors in the northern state. However and whether or not, Queenslanders pay only $5 regardless of their city/country status.

Operation Headcount

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LONDON (STN) — Students at London’s Open University have laun­ ched a survey to see what proportion of the English population would smoke dope if it were legalized. Operation Headcount isn!t sup­ posed to be a petition for legal­ isation, instead its organisers say “the information produced in the survey samples could indicate the size of the minority which are now being denied their right to smoke.” Backers of the survey demand an end to the laws against cannabis possession because they say these laws lead to police corruption through bribes, divert the police from going after serious criminals,, and create conditions in which deal­ ers encourage the use of heavier drugs to increase their profits. The survey is being carried out in conjunction with street theatre in shopping centers, on the control and effects of pot smoking.

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Tractor power

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his lawyer, but was unable to cont­ act the several he called, so the Cus­ toms men radioed to Big Brother and returned to declare that Dixon was under arrest. When they wouldn’t say why, a physical ruckus ensued: the narcs were dragging Dixon out on to the street through the store, and a group of friends who’d just arrived tried to intervene. An over-eager helper was flung against a wall: a Customs man shout­ ed, “I saw it, I saw what happened! You slipped.” Other onlookers spat at the narcs and asked to be arrested, to which the harassed men replied, “You’re yeller, just like children,” tossing another would-be helper over a bookcase where his head bled quietly down the wall. Dixon remarks that the Customs men did not seem prepared for resis­ tance, possibly being used to busting peaceable heads. Unlike State police, they had no methodically violent way of dealing with resistance, but reacted erratically and in some con­ fusion. Dixon thinks they might

A n y o n e g o t $ 5 m illio n fo r o ld Tim?

Los Angeles (UPS) — Tim­ othy Leary’s back in the U.S.A. . He arrived in LA on a flight from Afghanistan Jan. 18, accompanied by two agents of the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. It was the end of a 28-month odyssey for the apostle of hope, a search for sanctuary which began with his escape from a California prison in September 1970, and ended with his arrival in the U.S. to face charges on everything from marijuana possession to federal income tax evasion. Last month he was being held in lieu of $5 million bail in ¡the Los Angeles County jail. The incredibly

PARIS (STN) — Twenty-six irate French farmers drove off on their tractors towards Paris last January as a protest against the expansion of a military camp. The French Defence Ministry has approved plans to expand the Larzac military base by over 16,000 acres. This would force over 500 farmers, shepherds, and members of their

February 10 — February 24

families to leave their ancestral homes. One farmer was quoted thus, “The government told us that the expansion of the military camp was in the highest interest of the nation. But these interests are really those of the arms manufacturers.” The slow moving tractors com­ pletely bogged down traffic on one of France’s main highways. At the town of Orleans, police forced the farmers to stop, but six o f them continued by car to Paris, where, after being greeted by 3,000 solid­ arity demonstrators, they registered their protest with the Ministry of Defence.

To the left? N on PARIS (STN) - With the nation­ al elections only six weeks away, France’s ruling Gaullist Party is fight­ ing hard to keep the coalition of Socialists and Communists from win­ ning an easy victory. One of the main issues in the campaign is the question of lowering the voting age to 18. The Leftist coalition has promised to give young people responsibility for decision­ making at all levels of government. On the other hand, the Gaullists have been vague about this point. Students in the town of Caen, recently managed to pin down French Prime Minister Pierre Mesmer on the question of lowering the voting age. Mesmer proposed lower­ ing it to 19, but he opposed the 18 year old figure. His reason — all French men do a

year of military service at the age of 18. Mesmer said that men in the military are out of touch with their communities and should therefore not vote. French feminists have strongly criticised Mesmer for ignor­ ing the fact that over half the 18 year old population of France are women, and have no military duty to complete. Mesmer also opposed lowering the voting age before the elections. His stated reasons were vague, but a look at the recent West German and Dutch elections explains his oppos­ ition. In both lands, newly enfran­ chised 18 to 21 year olds swung the elections firmly over to the Left.

P u tan IC B M in your tank New York (UPS) — While most U.S. corporations claim they only fulfill defense contracts out of duty and obligation, many of them aggres­ sively encourage new defense business by spending over $1 million per year for advertising in defense trade jour­ nals. Many of the contractors are employing Madison Avenue ad agen­ cies and techniques. “ Defense is our name/Attack is our business” reads a Brunswick ad. “RAPIER. The lowaltitude air defense that’s right-on for the modem army,” begins one for a Norden missile. Defense contractors are even using the free giveaway. One ad for a night­ time illumination device by Xerox offered a free copy of “Mao Tsetung on Guerilla Warfare” on written request.

Repressive intolerance Montreal (UPS) — Canadian Film Commissioner Sydney Newman last month ordered an end to the production of “ Vingt- Quatre Heures ou Plus” , an examination of the Que­ bec separatist fight, because it repor­ tedly blames the problems of French Canadians on the capitalist system. “The film’s content and conclus­ ions would be difficult to accept by the people who uphold our de­ mocratic society,” Newman explain­ ed. “These people could not pardon the National Film Board for having permitted the film’s production.”

T hey come in colors Washington (UPS) — Amer­ icans are still dazzling natives with brightly colored trinkets — only now they’re giving away colored condoms to keep non-Americans from multip­ lying so fast. The pink, white, green, red, blue and black creations are being dis­ tributed to “underdeveloped coun­ tries” by the U.S. Agency for Inter­ nation Development. Dr R.T. Ravenholt, director of AIDs Office of Population, was pleased with the re­ ception his rubbers received in Asia. “You should have seen the interest in their faces when they saw the many colors,” he said.

Salvation in the mails By Virginia Fraser Using a combination of hard sell which he learned from door to ddor encyclopedia salesmen and the publication of his own ideas in newsletters, Greg Horman hopes to re-fashion the world. He started an ecology environment group called Everyone about a year ago, with what he describes as ‘airy fairy ideas’ and the intention of helping to create ‘a society of people on this planet that is by its very nature peaceful, enduring, inquiring and truthful’. His understanding of the state and future of the world is not radical in terms of ecology and environmental freaks, and his proposals for accomplishing a better, cleaner, more harmonious society not very detailed except at the grow your own, make compost heaps and don’t make waste, including too many babies, level. The most unusual thing about his organisation is the way he sells his ideas. He invites people to send specified sums of money to him in return for which he sends them a printed copy of his latest thoughts and understandings about the preservation and improvement of environment, and a copy of his reading list. When he first contacts people he invites them to send him one dollar — the signal dollar — to open communications and to be

least when police arrest you, you’re taken to a place that’s reasonably open to the public: people have some chance of getting to you.. If they don’t get satisfaction at the desk they can ask for a senior officer. “But at Customs House your helpers can’t even get to first base. They’re not police and yet they can hold you incommunicado as long as they. like. It smacks o f Nazism. If they’ve got police powers they should also have police responsibil­ ities.” *

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Dixon believes that information for the bust was supplied to customs men by a 19-year-old informer, who, it’s rumoured, gets a retainer of $70 a month from the Federal Narcotics Bureau plus a fat bonus for specific pieces of dobbing leading to success­ ful dope busts. This kid has been frequenting the Free Store every day for the past few months, according to the Store people, feigning interest in political matters and insinuating himself into the social network centring around the Store. This week’s rumour is that he’s been, given a thorough beating fiar his pains.

returned if the person does not answer one of his communications in the specified time, or replies negatively. It is the responsibility of the person who has the signal dollar to make the next communication. Everyone began when : “I was forced into a comer. If there was still a country left where you could get into a boat and piss off, where you could use compost and have some peace and quiet, it was Australia, and it’s all gone. It’s come to the point where if you want to have peace and quiet or even a place to meditate you have to make it yourself.” He went looking for peace and quiet at a monastery in Gloucester in England. “They read juicy extracts from a war diary over a lunch o f roast port and mince patties and custard.” He left as soon as he could. “I just paid $1200. for that meal. You leave home because they play TV over the meal and you go to a monastery and they read out war diaries over lunch. So I thought fuck it. One evidently has to do something. I had to look for years in d iffe r e n t social roles and occupations. I couldn’t find a place anywhere.” Greg, who is 22, went to university for five months but left because it was too like school, has been a waiter, laborer, office worker and now a laundry delivery truck driver. Everyone rests on Greg’s perceptions about what is required for salvation. . . and there are no elections, or office bearers. “Each person in Everyone will decide for himself whether each communication is worth propagating and acting on.” Everyone: 553 Toorak Road, Toorak, 3142.

Page 3

The Digger

February 10 — February 24

THE STOKE NEWINGTON EIGHT: (l. to r. upper then lower) Stuart Christie, Chris Bott, Kate McLean, Angela Weir, Jim Greenfield, Anna Mendelson, John Barker and Hilary Creek.

August 21, 1967: A vdiite saloon car pulled up outside the US Embassy in Mayfair, London, late at night. Three gunmen raked- the consular section of the embassy with machinegun fire and sped away. Leaflets scattered around the street called for solidarity with the Vietnamese. They were signed “Revolutionary Solidarity Movement.” March 3, 1968: Unexplained ex­ plosion damaged the Spanish Em­ bassy in London, the same night as a bomb partly demolished the US Offi­ cers’ Club in London.Bombingswere claimed by the First of May, Revo­ lutionary Solidarity Movement. October 15, 1968: Imperial War Museum, London, was firebombed causing severe damage. February 3, 1969’ Unexploded bombs were discovered in the door­ ways of the Bank of Spain and the Bank of Bilbao, London. February 9, 1969: Bank of Spain in Liverpool was damaged by a bomb. March 3, 1969: Bank of Bilbao, London, damaged by an unexplained bomb. August 15, 1969: The home of Conservative MP, Duncan Sandys, was firebombed. August 17, 1969: The Ulster Off­ ice, in London, was firebombed. August 19, 1969: A bomb was thrown into the British Army Re­ cruiting Centre, Brighton; it explod­ ed. The list goes on. In 1970, bet­ ween January and August, Molotov cocktails and time-bombs were found — some exploded, some un­ exploded — at Waterloo Station, the American Embassy, in an Iberian airliner at Heathrow airport, at Clerkenwell County Court, the Wemb­ ley Conservative Association, Harrow Road Police Station, Brixton Con­ servative Association, Lambeth Court, two London Army depots, the Iberian Airways Office and the Zambesi Club. On August 30th, 1970, a bomb damaged the home of Sir John Wal­ dron, Commissioner of Metropolitan Police. The explosion was not re­ ported in the press, on police in­ struction. September 8, just over a week later, the home of Attorney General Sir Peter Rowlinson was bombed. Again it was not reported. More unexplained bombings con­ tinued <xi Conservative Associations, banks, and Italian Consulates through to November 20, 1970, when,a BBC van outside the Albert Hall to re­ port the Miss World Contest was bombed at 2.30 am. In December that year two more London police stations were hit with petrol bombs, and machine-gun fire damaged the Spanish Embassy. The machinegunning, which was not reported, coincided with the trial of Basque Nationalists in Spain. As these incidents grew in fre­ quency, police stepped up attempts to find and arrest the mysterious bombers. Understandably, their efforts were spurred on by the bomb­ ing of Police Commissioner Waldron’s home. On January 12, 1971, as thousands of workers were striking and marching against the Tory gov­ ernment’s new Industrial Relations Bill, the home of Robert Carr, Min­ ister of Employment, in Hadley Green Road, Barnet, was bombed. One ex­ plosion ripped the house at 10.05 pm, another at 10.20 pm. Whilst the press did report this bombing — with outrage — they did not carry the full story of the bombing campaign that had spread throughout England and Scotland over the previous two years. Full-time guards were placed on Cabinet ministers and their homes. On January 27 a communique signed by the Angry Brigade was received at Britain’s Press Association. It claimed responsibility for several bombings on behalf of the Angry Brigade, and promised more. “British democracy is based on more blood, terror and exploitation than any empire in history...has a brutal police force whose crimes against the people the media will not report. “We have started the fight back* and the war will be won by the organised working class. With bombs. That day, police imposed a black­ out on their investigations, the Lon­ don Daily Mirror offered a 10,000 pounds reward to anyone giving infor­ mation leading to a conviction, and two days later The Times claimed, “...senior officers of Scotland Yard

credit the group with a degree of professional skill that has been seldom experienced.”

day before the bombing, to collect explosives. Seven witnesses testified she had been at a Gay Lib. demon­ stration that day, and a piece of French newspaper allegedly found at her flat had subsequently been lost, by the Special Branch.

*** Up to January 1971, polic.e and Special Branch had raided hundreds of houses, flats, underground news­ paper offices, and left-wing group headquarters. Two students, Alan Barlow and Phil Carver were caught trying to bomb the Bank of Bilbao, London, on March 15,1969. A Scot, Stuart Christie, in his twenties, had had his house raided and searched twice, and was considered a likely candidate for the bombing of Carr’s house, Christie had a history as an anarchist and was working in with the anti fascistmovement in Spain. In January, Roy Habershon, Major Henderson, Commander Bond and Commander Dace, some dogs and some photographers began raiding hundreds of houses around London. They were attempting to develop a picture of the London extra-parlia­ mentary left, whose structures they were largely ignorant of. They want­ ed to find out who this “ Angry Brigade” was. Many leftists and freaks were busted, questioned, intimidated and threatened. Most were freed, after Special Branch had stolen or photocopied their address books, per-t sonal letters, and confiscated news­ papers, magazines and leaflets. On January 19, police arrested Jake Pres­ cott — again — and after leaving him in a cell with three other men, produced two of the men at Jake’s trial who claimed Prescott had ad­ mitted to three bombings, while in the cells. The jury rejected the police witnesses. During the trial of Miss World Contest demonstrators, Habershon and Special Branch detectives remov­ ed four defence witnesses who were due to give evidence , and took them to Barnet Police Station for question­ ing. Habershon and his men were consistently accused of not allowing legal representation at interrogations, of repeatedly violating terms of their search warrants, of detaining “sus-' pects” for questioning for up to three days and of cell-bashings. One “suspect” reported Habershon said, “I am not concerned with legal niceties,” By March that year Habershon believed he had the Angry Brigade. Ian Furdie and Jake Prescott were remanded to the security wing of Brixton Prison, as class A prisoners, and kept in their cells 23 hours a day. They were charged with involve­ ment in the Miss World bombing, and the bombing of Carr’s House. March 18, the main offices of the Fbrd Motor Company at Grants Hill, Ilford, were shattered by a sizeable explosion. The bombing was accom­ panied by a 1,000 word communique, on the 100th anniversary of the Paris commune and during the big Ford strike in England. The communique, the 7th from the Angry Brigade, said in part: “The politicians, the leaders, the rich, the big bosses are in com­ mand . . . THEY control. “. . . Slowly we started understan­ ding the BIG CON. We saw that they had defined our ‘possibilities’. They said: You can demonstrate...between police lines. You can have sex . . . in the normal position and as a com­ modity; commodities are good. You can rally in defence of the TUC...the TUC leadership is wise. [TUC: Trade Union Council.] “They use confounding words like ‘public’ or the ‘national interest’. Is the public some kind of dignified body which we belong to, only until we go on strike? Why are we reduced then to dreaded scroungers, ruining the country’s economy? Is the ‘nat­ ional interest’ anything more than their interest? May 1, 1971: A bomb exploded in the Biba boutique, Kensington. The communique — number 8 from the Angry Brigade — described the boutique as a modern slavehouse, and ended with the postscript: “Without any obvious assistance from Ian and Jake the Angry Hordes have continued to bomb their way through history.” “Raid Hippy Communes” May 4, police searched for the person who strapped a bomb on the underside of Lady Beaverbrook’s car. They also defused four home-made bombs found at a school where Prime Minister Heath had received

Four found guilty o f belonging to the Angry Brigade:

10 years each for bom bing B ritain “the Freedom of Bexley” the pre­ vious Friday. On May 22, the bombings reached the heart of the Police Force itself — an explosion caused undisclosed dam­ age to the police computer room at Scotland Yard’s Tintagel House. The London Daily Telegraph re­ ported that “the Yard will get the Angry Brigade”. The paper claimed a special team of 20 hand-picked detectives from the Flying Squad and the Special Branch, working with army bomb-disposal experts and Home Office scientists, would “raid hippy communes, question avowed members of the ‘underground’ and build up a complete file on the sub­ culture that threatens the present social order.” On August 15, 1971, it was ann­ ounced that suspected Irish terror­ ists would be interred without trial in Northern Ireland. A bomb blew up at the Army Recruiting office in Holloway Road, North London, acc­ ompanied by a communique signed “Angry Brigade moonlighters’ cell”. Five days later, Special Branch — led by Habershon — raided a house at 359 Amhurst Road, Stoke Newing­ ton, and arrested James Greenfield, Hilary Creek, Anna Mendelson and John Barker after allegedly finding “an arsenal of explosives and guns” in the suburban commune. Next day Stuart Christie and Chris Bott were arrested when they called at the Stoke Newington house. The six arrested were charged with conspiring to cause explosions, possessing explosive substances for an unlawful; purpose, and various individual and combined charges along similar lines. The six were remanded in custody on August 24 — one month later the Albany St. Army Barracks were bombed, and on October 30 a bomb lifted the roof of the Post Office tower in central London. The “conspiracy” , involving the Stoke Newington six, expanded on November 11 with the arrest of Angela Weir in the suburb of Isling­ ton. On December 18, 1971, police added to the Stoke Newington def­ endants when they arrested Kate McLean on a conspiracy-to-bomb charge. Again, Habershon claimed to “have” the Angry Brigade. Two of the ten arrested by December 1971 were released later due to lack of evidence, leaving thé Stoke Newing­ ton eight to spend the whole of 1972 fighting for their acquittal. * * * For the first two years of the London bombings, credit for the explosions was claimed by various revolutionary groups, mostly claim­ ing solidarity with overseas liberation fighters. The Angry Brigade left its first communique at the Spanish Embassy in London on December 3, 1970, after the Embassy had been machine-gunned. It read: Facism & oppression will be smashed Embassies (Spanish Emb. Judges Machine-gunned High Pigs Thursday) Spectacles Com m unique 1 Property The A n gry Brigade.

Jim Greenfield, Anna Mendelson, Hilary Creek and John Barker met through the squatting movement in London in 1970. With two million slums in London, and tens of thou­ sands of homeless people sleeping in parks and deserted homes, a large number of young activists began organising takeovers of condemned houses, unlet apartments...deserted buildings of all types. Chris Bott and John Barker work­ ed together in the Claimants Union, a group dedicated to helping the sick, disabled, unemployed, strikers and the old-and-unwanted get what­ ever benefits were theirs within the law, and whatever else could be got for them.

Anna, Hilary and the other tw o women in the Stoke Newington eight — Angie Weir and Kate McLean — had all worked for the liberation of women in various ways. Kate was arrested at the demon­ stration against the Miss World con­ test, and later began a play group for kids with other women living in her street. Kate and Angie worked on the Women’s Newspaper in Lon­ don, and on the women’s issue of Frendz magazine. Angie was also active in the London Gay Liberation Front, and worked on their paper Come Together. Stuart Christie was editor of Black Flag, the monthly paper of the Black Cross — an international organ­ isation to aid and liberate political prisoners. In August 1971, when they were arrested, Anna, Jim, Hilary and John were sharing a house at 359 Amhurst Road, Stoke Newington. The house contained many books on revolut­ ionary politics some posters of people like Che, Mao, Lenin, Hendrix, and a duplicating machine. Many people involved in movement politics — freaks, left-theoreticians, anarchists, activists, radical women, gay liberationists — came and went from Amhurst Road,: as is the way in the counter-culture. When police raided Amhurst Road, just after the bombing of an Army Recruitmentoffice which was claimed by the Angry Brigade as retaliation for the new policy of internment in Ireland, they were looking for ex­ plosives. They claimed to have found plenty at Amhurst Road, as well as pieces of paper with finger-prints of some o f the other four defendants, the ones who didn’t live at the Stoke Newington house. All eight were arrested and charg­ ed with conspiring to cause explos­ ions between January 1968 and Aug­ ust 1971. All but Kate McLean and Angie Weir were charged with: 1. Possessing explosive substances for an unlawful purpose, 2. Possessing a Browning pistol without a firearms certificate, 3. Possessing eight rounds of ammunition without a firearms certificate, and, 4. Possessing two machine-guns without the authority of the Secretary of State. Jim Greenfield, John Barker and Hilary Creek were charged with receiving a stolen vehicle. Jim,"John and Stuart Christie were charged with possessing explosive substances. Anna Mendelsona dn Jim were charged with attempting to cause an explosion. Stuart Christie was charged with having a round of ammunition with­ out a firearms certificate, and with possessing explosive substances. Jim Greenfield was also charged with attempting to cause an explosion in May 1969. Britian’s Longest Trial. The trial of the Stoke Newington eight began late in May last year, before Mr Justice James at the Old Bailey. Three of the defendants, Hil­ ary Creek, Anna Mendelson and John Barker defended themselves. The trial took 111 days. It was the longest criminal trial in British legal history. It was also one of the most expensive — trial costs are variously estimated at between one and two million pounds sterling. The jury retired to consider its verdict after 109 days of evidence. They heard over three and a half million words. * * * Possession of explosives charges against the six who vrere arrested at Amhurst Road rested on the Special Branch Bomb Squad allegation that guns, ammunition, and explosives were found at the house during the raid.

Police presented no evidence that any of these guns and explosives had fingerprints or any other markings to link them with the six accused. The defence alleged the whole “arse­ nal” was planted at their house, during the raid by Special Branch Sergeant Michael Doyle. Police admi­ tted they had taken the defendants downstairs, into the hallway, midway through the raid and returned to search the upstairs flat again. It was\ in the second half of the bust that the explosives were found. Anna Mendelson and Jim Green­ field were linked by police with an unexploded bomb found at Man­ chester in 1968. Both Anna and Jim had alibis for the Manchester bomb-attempt — they were living in Wivenhoe, near Essex University at the time, and had witnesses to back them up. Anna’s fingerprints were said to have been found on a copy of Rolling Stone found in the bag with the bomb, or at least, some of the police who submitted reports on the Manchester bomb said they saw the Rolling Stone with the bomb — others couldn’t recall it. Anna told the jury many people came in and out o f the house at Amhurst Road, and the fact that her ’prints were allegedly one of fourteen sets detect­ ed on the Rolling Stone meant no­ thing. She confirmed that none of the four who lived at 359 denied that Angry Brigade sympathisers came and went . . . their house was communal. Prosecutor Mathews said these arguments were irrelevant, so long as the jury accepted that the finger­ prints were Greenfield’s and Mendelson’s, “ . . . then they were involved— and are therefore guilty.” The case against Stuart Christie depended on police claims that they had found detonators in the back of his car; that he had told a one-time lover of his, Lisa Byers, that he was “involved in the bombing”; and that two gas igniter heads were found in two unexploded bombs, and Christie was a converter for North Sea Gas. Kevin Winstain, barrister for Christie, claimed Byers had broken down in the witness box because of “the strain of telling all those lies.” He said Christie often joked with her about the police attention he got, and that she had twisted these remarks. Of the detonators in Christie’s car, Winstain pointed out that these, like all the explosives supposed to have been the defendants’, had no fingerprints or any other connection with the defendants except that pol­ ice had “found” them in their homes or cars. As for the gas igniters, Winstain said there were 1,300 other people in the Lodnon district who worked with these on conversion to natural gas, and that they were available to millions of Londoners over the counter. Police found no incriminating identification on any of the bombs themselves. Chris Bott was alleged to belong to the three-year conspiracy on the basis of a thumbprint found on a communique about the internment j bombing. Edward Laughton-Scott QC (for Bott) claimed Bott had visited j the Amhurst Road house twice before j the occassion of his arrest there, and { j that he had helped write pamphlets during his first visit. His thumb­ print could well have found its way onto a large number of then-blank sheets of paper. Laughton-Scott add­ ed, “...this is not a place of nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, this is a court of law.” Angie Weit was said to have written a draft copy o f the Moon­ lighters’ Cell communique on the internment bombing ...three handwrit­ ing experts wavered over identifi­ cation of the letter. She was also supposed to have travelled with def­ endant John Barker to France the

The prosecution had presented evidence of 25 bombings spread over those three years, and made a case from chemical and circumstantial evi­ dence that these formed an “associat­ ed set.” McDonald (for Jim Green­ field) said everyone agreed there had been 25 bombings, and that he understood the prosecution was charging the defendants with these offences as one set — the basis of the conpiracy, “At least that is the way they opened the case, but it is not the way they close.” In his summing up, Judge James supported the prosecutions claim that although the prosecution said all 25 bombings came from one source, all the jury had to find was one con­ spiracy, “within, and I.underline the word within” the three year period. Defending herself, 23 year-old Anna Mendelson said two people had come to 359 Amhurst Road two days after the announcement of the internment and, with her help, print­ ed copies of a communique about internment. But, she said, all four occupants of the house had asked the two Angry Brigade visitors for an assurance that the communique was not connected to a bombing. Both said it wasn’t. This was the com­ munique signed by the “Moonlight­ er’s Cell of the Angry Brigade.” She argued that Angry Brigade was nothing more than a name used by people who had anarchist or radical beliefs, and she quoted Com­ mander Bond of the Special Branch Bomb Squad who had already told the court he knew nothing of the internal organisation of the Angry Brigade. He had said “ideas and philosophy” were “membership” to the Brigade.

In their extensive evidence, the three who defended themselves out­ lined their attitude to Angry Brigade tactics and philosophy. Anna Mendelson admitted writ­ ing some o f the Moonlighter’s com­ munique. “Internment — rounding people up, putting people in camps, was more important to me than seeing somebody coming around to our flat with a stamp which said “Angry Brigade Moonlighters’ Cell”, and stamp it on the bottom. It was internment which was important to me.” The Scapegoat Theory Of the people who lived at Am­ hurst Road, she said: “ . . . we didn’t — and we don’t — feel that there is any room or need for bomb attacks on cabinet ministers, although we might understand the feelings behind them... Bombing a cabinet minister is not going to get rid of the capitalist system because there is always somebody to step into his place, unless the situation and con­ ditions are right.” In his closing speech, John Barker gave his version of the Stoke New­ ington eight’s counter-conspiracy theory — the theory of a police conspiracy to frame the eight as scapegoats for violence that had lit­ erally come into politicians’ lounge rooms. “The appearance of arresting peo­ ple is as important,” he said, “if not more important, than actually smash­ ing the Angry Brigade itself. It is... setting an example, showing people they can’t get away with it, and so on. But of course, if that is the case, they may still be worried about the real Angry Brigade. But then, perhaps they are still looking for the real Angry Brigade, because they still have a very large Bomb Squad which doesn’t seem to have changed very much in size from when we were arrested.” Last defendant to present her closing speech was Hilary Creek. Hilary concluded: “If you convict we are not going to change. We will still be who we are and what we believe. I know that the people in this dock with me are people working together for a happier and more peaceful world. That is who we are. It is your deci­ sion.” The case for the prosecution, and

for the defence was over, after nearly six months. * * * In his summing-up to the jury, Mr Justice James said the jury need only find there was one conspiracy, within the three years under exam­ ination. He added that “conspiracy can be effected by a wink or a nod without a word being spoken.” James went on to claim the trial was not a political trial. “It is not,” he told the jury, “and I direct you to have none of it. Political trials are trials of people for their political beliefs. We don’t have them in this country.” Finally, James told the jury their verdict should be unanimous. There would be no question of a majority verdict, he said, unless and until he gave them further instructions. * * * The jury returned after 52 hours, on the 111th day o f the trial. Stuart Christie, who, police had alleged, had two detonators in his car, was unanimously acquitted of all charges. Chris Bott, Angela Weir and Kate McLean were also acquitted. The jury cleared the remaining four of causing explosions. They were divided as to whether they conspired to do so or were in posses­ sion of arms. (They had already implicitly accepted police plants — in the case of Stuart Christie.) The jury returned a 10 to 2 majority verdict against the four (majority verdicts have only recently been possible in English law) on the charge of conspiring to cause explosions, but made an appeal for clemancy. James sentenced Jim Greenfield, 25, Anna Mendelson, 23, John Barker, 24, and Hilary Anne Creek, 24, to 10 years each. Hilary Creek is the mother of a year-old baby. * * * The solicitor for Stuart Christie, Benedict Bimberg, announced late .last year that in view of the fact that Christie had been 16 months in cust­ ody (the equivalent of a two-year sentence with remissions) and had been found not guilty, something unprecedented in England, and that bail had been persistently refused solely due to Christie’s political views and international connections, he would consider taking a writ against the police for malicious arr­ est. It is believed that such a writ, if successful, would help build a case for release of the five currently im­ prisoned. * * * Throughout the trial, the myster­ ious bombings continued around the Biritsh Isles. Mr Justice James, in passing sen­ tence, said: “The conspiracy of which you have been convicted has had as its object the intention o f dis­ rupting and attacking the demo­ cratic society o f this country. One week before sentencing, the Angry Brigade released a 14th com­ munique. It said: “ Our offensive against the ruling class will continue in many different ways, including bombings if they are necessary, to demonstrate the morally correct use of political violence.” * * * The bombings continue today. You only read about them in the underground press. (This article was compiled by Phillip Frazer from the following sources: Time Out, various issues from A u g ­ ust through December, 1972; th e London Evening Standard, Dec­ ember 4, 1972; The Age, December 8, 1972; Conspiracy Notes, pub­ lished by the Stoke Newington Eight Defence Group, London, 1972; Whose Conspiracy?, pamphlet by the Stoke Newington Eight Defence Group, 1972; Anarchy, Number 9, London, undated; and private corres­ pondence lent to The Digger.)

A correction to last issue’s Biweekly News: The column was attributed to V.F. (Virginia Fraser): the section down to the row of asterisks was in fact written by Game Hutchinson and Phillip Frazer. All the remainder was Virginia’s.

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Page 4

The Digger

by Helen Garner In the Wesley Church Hall, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, where the Council for the Single Woman and her Child has its tiny busy office, I walked up and down nursing a frantic baby whose mother had gone shopping. It bellowed relentlessly in the heat, spraying my shoulder with dribble and tears. I sang it a little embarrassed song and it consented to suck on a biscuit. I was waiting for Sandra Fitts, one of the single mothers who started CSMC in 1969. She was late, and I got talking with a single mother called Jenny who’d dropped in for a chat, proudly carrying her five-months-old daughter Felica. She held that child as if she were not only proud but defiant and full of joy. I’d never seen that look before. I asked her to tell me about having an illegitimate child. She was eager to talk — a pleasant, strong-faced 19-year-old with a confident manner and a punchy turn o f phrase, quite sure of her opinion about what had happened to her. And that’s how I first heard of Hartnett House. Jenny comes from a Catholic family though she doesn’t practice. She left home and school at 15 and went to work as barmaid and a telephonist. When she got pregnant last year her father said it was just what he’d expected. There was never any doubt in her mind that she wanted the baby: the father, an American, had to go back to the U.S. and she didn’t want to live there. “I wasn’t scared of being pregnant. I guess I was dumbfounded. We loved each other very much, but it’s best if we don’t write. That’d hurt too much. “The Queen Vic. Hospital social worker wanted me to go to the Grey Sisters but I had an aunt who lived a bit close. So I went to Hartnett House in Brunswick when I was 5 or 6 months pregnant. I took their offer because I was really hard-up for somewhere to stay. “There attitude when I arrived was — just another pregnant girl, bring her in, she’ll be right. No one came to talk to me. A slut, that’s what they were thinking”. What exactly didn’t she like about the place? What were the living conditions like? “We slept in dormitories of 5 or 6 beds. That wasn’t too bad, though — you got some privacy. But what made me mad was the way they woke us up at six in the morning: they’d put the light on while we were asleep. I used to tell them to rack off. “And the food was repulsive. The soup, it was like spew. Bread) was pumped into you till it came out your ears. We did get Aktavite. But it was the same breakfast every day: weeties, or porridge, and toast. If you wanted fruit juice you had to buy it yourself. One cup of coffee a day, and tea with every meal. “Visiting hours weren’t too bad. We were allowed out for four hours in the afternoon, although we could go out at night only at the weekends. I was one o f the smart ones, I used to nick off. “Smoking was out. You crave more when you’re pregnant — for satisfaction, but also just for something to do. And we had to work. You could pay less rent, or none, if you worked. I was bending over making cots — twelve a morning. When we got up we had to bath the kids and feed them. One girl was cleaning windows one day before she was due. Of course if you complained you’d be out on your earhole. “There were exercise classes every Thursday night. They didn’t give us enough time for exercises — and they ought to have had post-natal exercises, that’s just as important, but they didn’t. You have to be taught how to get back into shape. “But I reckon the worst thing was that I had no one to love me. I was craving for affection, but I felt as if I had to do something in order to get it. I needed love more than food. What we got was hymns and prayers, and they even expected gratitude. “When I went into labor, I had a temp of 105 deg. and I was still working. I went into hospital, I was in labor for 26 hours and she was a forceps delivery. No one phoned up from Hartnett House. Sister Eldridge came and picked me up. She left me tangling behind and walked off with the baby. I reckon that’s all they want, the babies. “As soon as I got back to Hartnett House they took the baby and told me to go and get changed. I did not like this. I wanted to look after her myself. After all, I gave birth to her. I feel it wasn’t my baby, when I got back there, but a child of an institution. “If a kid was going to be adopted you had to prop it in its cot to feed it, instead of cuddling it, and hold the bottle at arm’s length. “I wouldn’t have let them touch Felica. You should see those kids in there — wards of the state. They

don’t get enough love, do they? Toddlers,five or six of them, running up and down in the exercise passage. It’s got no windows and just a couple of soft toys. They’re crying their eyes out. “They’re not taken out enough. They have to stay in their cots except for half an hour in the walking room. When it’s sunny they put them outside in their cots from 10 o’clock till the 1 o’clock feed. There are plenty of help, but they don’t get enough love — the only fuss made over them is at mealtimes. “When they’re two they’re thrown over to the other section. They’re looked after well there.” Did the staff encourage you to have Felica adopted? “They never actually suggested adoption, or urged us to, but you felt you were under pressure. There was this tape they used to play from time to time, it sounded like Sister Eldridge’s voice, telling us about the pension and that, and how hard it would be if you kept the child. “Six weeks after I had Felica, I was still at Hartnett House and one of the girls told me about CSMC. I was desperate to get out. I told Sister Keily I wanted to keep Felica. I was that mucked up in the mind — I told her I had somewhere to go. “I went down to CSMC, and Judy Rickard was there. She helped me — I’m living at her place now. “Keily said, you’ll never be able to look after Felica. You’ll be back here wanting us to look after her. But I got her, and that’s the main thing. They said I couldn’t do it, but look at me now, riding high! I’d love to go back there and spit in their faces. They’re fro m the old Stone Age, those sisters. They’re frozen. “After I had Felica, back at H artnett House, I started haemorrhaging. I was losing clots of blood the size of your fist. But the sister said, I don’t care, you’re not pregnant any more. “I was in hospital three times after Felica. Nobody seemed to care. You’re just not one of the girls any more after you have your baby.”

Janet, a 15-year-old who’d ha(d her baby adopted, spoke with Jenny and me over lunch. Janet’s much more wary and reticent than Jenny. She’s dark, pretty, thin and long-legged like a schoolgirl, she putjS away a whacking meal and smokek unconcernedly. She gives o ff a slightly nervous, bird-like vibe, none of Jenny’s strong confidence. She doesn’t look at me much, but concentrates more on getting out of Jenny an arrangement for an evening out with some., group they both know. What she tells me is less coherent than Jenny’s story: Jenny on the other hand relaxes into talking, is loath for our interview to come to a close, evidently enjoys the indulgence of a willing listener. She seems womanly, while Jenny is still a kid, friendly allright but keen to get on with the immediate business of daily life, not interested in speculation or philosophy. A very sharp little girl. Jenny’s skinniness kept her pregnancy a secret till she was seven months into it. She was still at school, in fourth form, when it started to show. Rumors started flashing round the school and someone dobbed her in to her mother, who wasn’t angry — just upset. She’d have arranged an abortion if it hadn’t been too late; and there was the money problem. Her mother took her to a doctor; her father’s boss put them on to. a minister who had connections with Hartnett House. He came to see Janet and was friendly and cheerful. “Easy for him”, grunts Jenny. “Not too many men have babies these da^s”. “The father’s father wanted me to have the kid,” Janet explains, “but he was a drunk. I didn’t want him nagging on my steps after the baby. So that’s Why I had her adopted. “Two weeks after my parents found out, I was in Hartnett House. As soon as I got there they said I ought to adopt. There was no one there to speak freely to, or get help or advice from. They don’t seem to understand you, or take any notice o f you. They treat you like shit, like a slut. They’re only interested in taking your baby off you and getting you out. “The other girls told me, wait till you meet Jenny, she’ll bash you up. But as soon as we saw each other we were the best of friends. We stirred up the whole house.” Both girls laugh, looking at each other across the table. “The girls who were there — well, there was one who was 35, a fat slacky moll, she’d been there five times. She came in every year with a bun in the oven, and then went. And

The fin e lin e b e tw e e n p r o te c tio n and p u n ish m e n t:

February 10 — February 24 Another angle on the Hartnett House story came from Mandy, a 23-year-old ex-casual help at the home, who Jenny put me in touch with. I told Mandy how warmly Jenny had spoken of her. She laughed and said, “We were mopping the floor together one day when I hadn’t been there long. I knocked something over Gail Waldron and said shit! Jenny looked up sharply and we started to laugh. From then on we were friends. We used to mop and mop, much longer than we needed to, just so we could talk. We talked frantically. We used to nick into the dunny and have a smoke together. “I wasn’t meant to mix with them. It wasn’t the done thing. They told qie if you let them get on top of you, they’ll have no respect for you. And they said, don’t talk to Jenny, she’s the worst of the lot. They hated her because she had the spunk to stand up for herself. “The mothers weren’t allowed to cuddle their kids. The reason they gave was the danger of cross-infection.’ One Maltese woman there kept on nursing her baby. They just couldn’t stop her. “The worst thing there, though, was the way they treated the kids. You know, even when they got old enough, they weren’t allowed to feed themselves. If you were feeding them and they tried to grab the spoon, you had to push their hands away. One little kid, Bradley, used to go nearly crazy with frustration: he’d try for the spoon, they’d push his hand away, and he’d scream and throw himself on his back and refuse to be fed. They called him aproblem child. Sometimes he went hungry. “It was actually a policy that we weren’t supposed to show affection to the kids. We had instructions not to cuddle them. But they were craving for it. Every time I’d go past Bradley he’d put his face through the bars for a kiss. I’d give him one and he’d fall back eestatically laughing. I’d pass again and he’d put his face out for another.” Mandy’s laughing as she talks, but she’s angry too when she remembers these things. “You ought to see what they do to their hair: beautiful kids, and I’d Jenny and Felica: (T m luckier than most. Vve still g o t my kid. come back on Sunday and find them with pudding basin cuts. They said it was for health reasons. one boyfriend to visit her. If the man them at the Haven, “because there “One day I was allowed to take are no facilities”. (It’s hard to two kids for a walk. I was sick of responsible is still in the picture, he’s imagine what facilities would be welcome. But you couldn’t have a seeing them running up and down needed). But a boyfriend can take that passage, so I took them to my pregnant girl having four or five them out, “/ / they call for them and sister’s place and let them free to run boyfriends coming. To my way of bring them back to the door for the afternoon. thinking it’s . . . no principle for the afterwards. And not just any “A lot o f the girls had no idea of house. boyfriend. Some girls would have all their rights. Jenny didn’t even know “There’s nothing old-fashioned and sundry coming to visit them.” she was entitled to a pension till I going on here, like reading their The Haven, like all the homes I told her. Country giris in particular checked out, deducts a large letters.” don’t know what’s going on, so they percentage of the girl’s pension (dole don’t stick up for themselves! One of * * He * * % till childbirth, then unmarried I called The Haven, the Salvation the sisters used to say our girls are Army maternity home. In the mother’s pension) in exchange for too immature to keep their babies. shelter and food. “If a girl’s cheque But you get a person like Jenny in background I could hear the sound is $17, we take $12. It’s an expensive the place and suddenly there’s a of children shouting and wailing. place to run.” wave of girls deciding to keep their “A girl has to make her own When a girl whose going to sign babies'.” decision about whether to adopt or over her child comes back to the It’s not only in the church not,” said the matron. “You can’t Haven from hospital, the child is homes that single mothers get the taken away and put in a separate encourage them to do either. If a girl short end of tjie stick. Another girl I looks back and says, I wouldn’t have section on the same premises. Girls spoke to,Trish, -who got on to CSMC who want to keep their babies go to done this if they hadn’t suggested early in her pregnancy and found a the Henry Pride wing o f the i t . . . that’s no good. You just point Women’s Hospital. family to look after her, had a distressing experience only a few out the problems and pitfalls on “We have no facilities for girls to days ago in the Queen Victoria, one both sides. care for their children here. They’re of Melbourne’s big public women’s “The percentage of girls we get not allowed to go in and out o f the hospitals. here who keep their babies is less babies home as they like. They are She’d planned all along to have than the overall state percentage, allowed to see their babies at certain the child adopted, but she wasn’t times.” because these days a girl who is going prepared for the way it was done. Are they allowed to hold them? to keep a child will stay at home The baby was taken away straight “I let them do what they like. I instead of coming to us. We used to after birth, and the next thing she ask them, very carefully whether they have lots more, but over the years heard from-her hospital bed was that want to or not. But they don’t hold staff had named it without even the social stigma has decreased. Giris the baby and feed it unless they consulting her. A CSMC woman say “I’m having a baby, well, I don’t really want to. Most don’t even ask.” spoke to a sister and the child’s name have to go away and hide”. ****** was changed to the one Irish had “Most girls we get are from the The Presbyterian Church does its chosen. country, some even from interstate. bit for the deserving at th e } The usual practice is to assume The average age used to be 15 a few Sisterhood in North Fitzroy — that mothers who adopt aren’t years back, now it’s 17.” Sisterhood in the old sense of the interested in their children. When Do you give any advice on word. The woman who answered my Trishwent to the nursery to see her contraceptives? call sounded younger and was less child, she was told it had a dislocated senior than the matrons of HH and There’s a very long pause. hip and for this reason she was not The Haven. She was most reluctant allowed to hold it. A paediatrician “I know standards are different to talk, and when I got to my Trish’s friend consulted said this was these days. Look — I don’t know question about freedom and visiting absurd, since the child’s nappy was what you r standards are, but I talk hours, she jacked up completely having to be constantly changed, and to the girls about not giving the boys until I’d given her time to consult there was no medical reason why she all they want. A girl who just can’t her absent superior. should not be allowed to hold it. help it, well, she should use It was pretty much the same Trish tried to find out what would contraceptives. Oh, I know everyone story without the moral overlay happen to her baby: She doesn’t does it. I know it’s part of dating. overtly expressed by the two want to interfere, she just wants to But it’s better to teach them a matrons, which is not to say, of know. She feels single mothers must different standard. course, that the overlay doesn’t , often be ignored and unconsidered. “Most of the girls here aren’t manifest itself in the atmosphere of practising Christians when they I talked with Sandy Fitts at the place. arrive. But by the time they leave CSMC, who was single when she had Matron was described as “a they’ve got a much different idea of her first child but is now married discerning person” who could pick God and prayer.” with a second son. the sheep from the goats when it What freedom do the girls have “There’s a very fine line between came to the intentions of boyfriends. to go out? protection and punishment,” she As in the other homes, church “They’re allowed put during the suggests. “Some people think it services are the order of the day. It’s day, to go to the shop or post a appropriate to behave towards single stressed that these are not letter.” mothers as though nothing had compulsory, but that all the girls I remark that I’ve seen them happened — they don’t congratulate accept them. round the streets near my house. them about the baby in case it upsets “They come in knowing this will She gives an odd, embarrassed them. One woman doctor I met at a happen. At the interview they find laugh. conference blithely remarked that, out how we run the place, so they do “I wish they weren’t so keen on after all, having a baby isn’t much have a choice, whether to come here walking round!” different from an appendix or not. They have to fit in.”* Why not? They’re only going for operation. She’d never had one How many people would a stroll, is there anything wrong with herself.” seriously call that a choice, between that? CSMC. stresses self-help. Its living at home with distressed “No, but why parade themselves whole service is based on the idea parents in a gossipy country town round the streets? Some of them and buckling down in a religious that even if you’re not married, have five or six strolls a day. You’ve institution? You’d swallow many an having a child can be a joyful and got to have some standards.” indignity just for the chance to be positive experience. The council aims Girls aren!t allowed out after to make single mothers fully aware able to walk in the street without tea. They have one day off, when of their rights, and to work for the having to hang your head. there are no jobs for them to do. — Continued on next page They can’t have boyfriends to visit Hs * Hi Hi ♦ *

I needed love -I got lousy fo o d and hym ns instead

Hartnett House.

“The mothers weren't allowed to cuddle their kids."

another one was crazy, she tried to stab me with a kitchen knife. “They never told us anything about contraceptives. We got grace and prayers. “When I was in labor they wouldn’t believe me. I was still stacking milk from the crates into the fridge when the contractions were five minutes apart. I was in labor five days, and all that time I never slept, I was awake the whole time. But they didn’t take me in until the water broke and I was having two-minute contractions. “I never got to hold the baby. I’ve never even touched her.” Jenny adds indignantly: “They wouldn’t let her touch her own flesh and blood!” Janet’s not visibly upset at the memory. She darts a small smile at me and goes on. “When she was born I was too buggered. “I went back to Hartnett House for one night. Straight away the baby was taken away and they made me go to bed at 8 o’clock. I was mad — I wanted to watch the movie! Next day I went home to my parents place. I haven’t (seen Jody since. I want t o . . . but I won’t because I’d want her back and it’s too late now. I’ve signed her over. “For a while I reckon I was mentally disturbed. I couldn’t handle myself. I used to get upset at little things and start crying. Like, remember that party?” Jenny nods. “A boy asked me why I didn’t go on the pill. I started crying. That brought it all back.” Janet has to go back to work. She back-chats the waiter, gathers up her cigarettes and bag, and disappears into Elizabeth Street. Jenny wants to talk on. “Social stigma? I hadn’t really thought about it. Are they thinking evil of me? Most people when they hear say, that’s terrific! “She’s my daughter. I love her. I made her. I’m going to bring her up properly. Parents should speak openly, and tell their kids the whole story. I was left to find out about sex on my own. My mother left me when I was eight, my father thinks sex is dirty. “The way they avoid talking about sex at school — it’s crazy, everyone does it, it should be discussed openly at school, or home, or work. When I was at school, kids used to screw in the yard in 10 feet of grass! “I’m not going to bring up Felica so she’ll blush and smirk about sex. I’m going to come out and tell her straight out. It’s her life. I’m not going to belt her, or lock her in her bedroom, like they did to me. “The pension’s lousy — if I had to pay rent I don’t know what I’d

do. When the new rate comes in I’ll be better off. But I’m luckier than most single mothers: I’ve still got my kid.” , ****** I telephoned several of the single mothers’ homes listed under various churches in the Melbourne telephone book. I managed to contact four of them and to have extended conversations with representatives of three. Hartnett House, The Haven (Salvation Army) and The Sisterhood (Presbyterian). None of the women I spoke to was prepared to give her name except a Sister at St Joseph’s in Grattan Street, who was on her way to a conference and unable to spare time then to talk, though she pleasantly invited me to call again. The Salvation Army lady was the only one who seemed happy to explain her institution’s policy to me: the other two were initially somewhat wary, and many pauses fell between question and answer. As the Hartnett House matron said, “It’s not the time, dear, it’s just that I don’t know if I should.” She explained that there are not fewer illegimate children born: rather it’s that standards are different these days. A large percentage keep their babies now, compared with 1969 or 1970, she said. I asked if she advised girls to have their babies adopted. “Some people think maternity homes encourage girls to adopt. I don’t advise them. I say, listen to me, and I’ll help you. Sometimes you feel you’d like to advise them . . . but I encourage them according to their ability to handle the situation. You can always talk better to a girl when you’re doing some job together: peeling vegetables, washing up.” The matron explained that pregnant girls don’t come to Hartnett House in ignorance; in the interview before they’re admitted she says, they’re told exactly what to expect at the home. “If a girl’s got nowhere to go that night, you tell her this is the story, now think about it. You can only help a girl who wants to be helped. They come of their own free wi l l . . . of course, some of them are made to come by their parents.” After the birth of the child, the mother can sign it over for adoption in as few as six days. But the law allows 30 days before everything is final. If she withdraws her consent within that time, she can leave the child in the home and support it financially herself until she makes up her mind. I asked about general rules and visiting hours, particularly regarding men friends. “A girl is only allowed to have

; February 10 — February 24

The Digger

Page 5

— Continued from previous page expansion o f these rights so that angle mothers can achieve some independence and self-reliance. “A single mother and her child are an extreme form of the nuclear family,” says Sandy. “And we help to expand this into a wider group. We’re the only accommodation exchange in Melbourne for these people. We put women in touch with families who can help them. We help establish area groups of single mothers which immediately become self-determining — either action or social groups.” CSMC has fought for three years to , get single mothers the Commonwealth Widow’s pension. Since Labor’s win, things are looking brighter. Hayden has indicated that the pension should come through by the end o f March. This is a tremendous step: the widow’s pension is $34.50 and you’re allowed to earn $26 in part-time work. But this is a total social problem — when there’s no part-time work for women, and no day-care available, an earning leeway isn’t much use. For funds to keep CSMt! functioning, State Minister for Social Welfare, Smith, has to be approached. “Our first submission was for $13,000. He gave us $500. “Two of us immediately resigned. Our president rang Smith and complained. We invited him to lunch to discuss the whole business o f CSMC’s role in the social welfare set-up. The press and TV were there. We told him we needed more money. Right in front o f the cameras he says, What? Haven’t you got the $2000? It was the first we’d heard o f it. It was only a few days after this meeting that Smith made his famous press statement to the effect that the Social Welfare Department had no intention of subsidising the promiscuity of a small minority of the population. “Right now we’re trying to get money to establish an emergency accom. centre. People arrive literally desperate on the doorstep. What we do is try to get them into families immediately but there’s a limited number o f places and the same families often have to bear the burden time after time — not that they complain, but it’s emotionally terribly exhausting. “Even when a girl is getting a pension, she’s up against all kinds of bureaucratic interference. One girl applied for an allowance; the Social Welfare Department asked her all kinds of questions,1 like, Are you sleeping With anyone? She answered honestly. Occasionally. — Oh, they said, that’s a de facto relationship. I don’t call a fuck a de facto relationship, she replied. What that meant, o f course, was no pension for you, lady. They actually wrote her a letter saying she wasn’t going to get a pension because o f a bona fide domestic relationship. “Well, she got sick and went to live in the country with her mother. She gets the pension now, after an appeal, because she’s respectable. “She failed to understand the toils o f the bureaucratic mind. She was honest. But next time she’ll have to lie, or play a part.”

T o w a rd s lib era tio n :

W arnen discuss tactics at M tB ea u ty by Ponch Hawkes Last Australia Day weekend, over one hundred women met at Mount Beauty, in the Victorian Alps, for a conference on feminism. It was Australia’s first residential women’s liberation conference, and the first mainly concerned with theory Conference initiators, Canberra W om en’s Libération Group, expressed the hope that “the conference will contribute to the feminist analysis of sexism in modern Australia, and help us to work out how the women’s movement as a whole might go about transforming this society so that women, children and men no longer suffer from restrictive sex roles.” While the content was uncompromising, the style of the conference was relaxed because it reflected what it is that makes the women’s movement different from most organisations. There were no hierarchies no leaders, and the emphasis was on collective action and small group participation. Criticisms were given and taken without bitterness. Papers delivered at the conference came under three rough categories: “A world perspective”, “ Being a woman in Australia”, and “ Tow ards Liberation” . Most discussion, however, was concerned with what could be done politically, given most participants have been part o f consciousness-raising groups and have developed feelings and experiences that demand action. And while they may use established ideologies in analysis, most,women adopted a feminist perspective. The dilemma of reform-versus-revolution was central in discussion of possible political tactics. Within the system, women’s action has been effective in the Women’s Electoral Lobby election work, and must be made effective in ensuring adequate child-care in communities. . . but, as Helen Shepheard said, such a reform “could mean the perfect buy-off, make the state the parent and never really confront the insidious sex-role situation.” So questions were asked like^ should women work only on their own issues, join groups like WEL and press for more radical reforms there, join existing left groups or form

S h itw o rk in th e unions.

W h eelin g and dealing is a m an’s gam e by Helen Garner.

One girl’s neighbors dobbed her in to the Social Welfare Department for having a job. They cut off her pension. She went in there, desperate, and swore under oath that she hadn’t been working. She’s up on a perjury charge. A bureaucratic vendetta. By the time her case comes up, single mothers will be allowed to earn. A girl who had a second child and didn’t want to take out a maintenance order against the father had her cheque stopped. She had no food. The Department explained, “We’re doing this for the good o f the whole family.”

CSMC has had to complain to the Social Welfare Department about the offensive habits o f some of their field officers. One infamous woman wanted to stop a girl’s cheque because, she claimed, a leather coat (the girl’s) hanging behind a door meant that a man must be living in the house. Field officers have been known to stalk round houses wanting to know who sleeps where, and making remarks like “You’re an educated girl, how could you have made a mistake like this?” Police treatment o f single mothers marks them out as second-class citizens. Three single mothers took their kids to the country for a weekend. The house they were staying in was busted, and the cops found a tiny quantity of dope hidden in a bed belonging to one of the owners of the house. Everyone was jailed; bail was refused. The women were refused permission to call their parents to come and look after the children; instead the kids were taken from their mothers and put into Allambie children’s home for the night. Single mothers are, after all, sluts.

revolutionary socialists women’s groups, or form completely new structures? Barbara Wishart’s paper “Politics is a Man’s Game” pointed out the value structure of Australian politics, its sex-role ideology, how the dice are loaded against women participating successfully. . . how the game of politics is organised for male players. Traditionally anti-oppression politics were also seen as dilemma. Many women came to the women’s movement via male-dominated left groups in which men were able to id e n tify discrimination, and oppression “outside, in the world”,; but refused to see their own repressive role in relation to women. Linda Rubenstein and Martha Kay in their paper “How, where, and with whom does a radical feminist work? argued that even though there

Zelda D’Aprano is 45, a mail sorter, a member o f the Amalgam­ ated Postal Workers’ Union, and, to use her own term, a liberationist. She’s a straightforward, wiry, cheer­ ful woman, dark-haired, thin almost to the point of stringiness — a real fighter — and she expresses in pun­ gent terms her disgust for the maledominated world of union affairs. Zelda should know: she’s been in there slugging fgr more than twenty years. Years ago, when she was a dental nurse at Melbourne’s Larundel Psychiatric Hospital, Zelda joined the Hospital Employees Union, no. 2 division. Union rules set down quarterly general meetings, but in fact meetings happened about once a year. At the first one she went to eight people were present; from this eight, three executive positions were to be elected. Several o f the eight were already on the executive. Zelda stood up and said, “How can I vote for strangers? How do I get to know people when there’s only one meeting a year?” She insisted that the union follow its own rules and conduct quarterly general meet­ ings. The executive complied with her request; but she says they saw her behaviour as a “shocking threat”. “To my astonishment, they began to stack the meetings with Baltic migrants, who were at that time ignorant of affairs within the union. As soon as I got up to speak, the men began to scream and bellow at me. It happened at several meetings: I’d open my mouth and they’d start. I used to be trembling. But I stood there and waited till the screaming died down. And when they listened to me, the migrants saw what I was trying to do — make it into an effec­ tive union — and they eventually be­ came my avid supporters. “In those days, though I was aw­ are that as a woman I was up against certain difficulties, I was never aware of women’s problems as such. Though

nearly half the hospital employees were women, I was completely orien­ ted to the overall problems. This could be why the men came to sup­ port me. A few men battled too — I wasn’t the only one. “There is one criticism that male unionists often level at women: that we won’t try for top positions in the organisation. Well, I didn’t know the reason for it then — or rather, I suppose I thought I was hanging back because, like all women, I lacked confidence and was terribly nervous. Public speaking, for instance — I had never made a speech. When I started having to speak at length and in depth, because I’m a woman I wrote it all down and read it out. There were moments when my terror near­ ly got too much for me, I’d be trembling all over. I’d have to stop dead and compose myself before I could keep going. “I became elected shop steward for the women members of the Hospital Employees, I was a sub­ branch official, and a delegate to the federal conference. The only offices I Sought were the ones below, where I did the shitwork. This fact used to worry me until I got into the women’s movement and started to understand why I didn’t want to get any higher up in the organisation­ al structure. “ Fighting in a man’s world, I’m thankful I’m a woman and could never be like them. That’s why I’ll never seek high office. I can’t wheel and deal. I can’t manipulate. I sup­ pose they’d call me naive in many of my attitudes. I suppose in a male world I am naive. I hold to certain principles. I’m me and I don’t want to be anything else. “If you get into their machine — whether it’s on the employer’s side through promotion in your job, or through union affairs — you have to play the game according to their rules. You get sucked into doing things that compromise you. “Men will say to you, you're

are apparent contradictions between the women’s mo vement and the socialist left, these problems must be' resolved if women and people generally are to survive. They perceived the fight against capitalism and sexism as one fight, and added that men will never change if they are cut off from movement women, and it is imperative that they do' change. A move to re-examine attitudes within the movement came via Eileen Haley’s paper “Color”, which dealt with women’s liberation and the Black Movement. Many radical black women reject the women’s movement as too middleclass and too white. Much of this came to a head during joint involvements during the Aboriginal Embassy demonstrations in Canberra last year: black women argued that their first target was to build their own

movement while white women argued they should be fighting male chauvinism in the black movement. Eileen argued that both white and ?lack women have their identities imposed on them by the white man, but that the imposed identities are different. She coined a term, “white-feminine conditioning” and drew the analogy of a castle on a hill and a village at the bottom. The castle as white Australia, the respectable white community, the rich, the old-established Australian, and the village as black Australia, the Aboriginal fringe, the poor, the migrants. She discussed the position of the castle women in relation to the woman in the village, and what traps are involved in this situation. She said “The Australian women’s movement has in no way grappled with this problem, we must

going about things the wrong bloody in work hours, women would feel way — you’ll get better results if you more able to take an active part. do this, or that. They want you to “The way things are in most unions, wheel and deal. If you’re open and workers are alienated from their own honest, if you talk from the heart organisation. Monthly or quarterly and guts, they think you’re a naive meetings aren’t enough. You can’t wet creature. expect people to drag themselves in, “ After women’s liberation meet­ to the Trades Hall after a hard day’s ings, union meetings are intolerable.. work. It’s not only the women who don’t make it to the general meet­ You sit tfyere looking at the back ings. Sometimes the men don’t even o f the feller’s head in front of you. get a quorum. The leaders are up the front, talking “Meetings at job level mean that at you and down to you. women in particular can discuss prob­ “Men love to adhere strictly to the code of debate —motions, amend­ lems .that affect them directly. At ments, addenda — they love all the smaller meetings, with people she paraphernalia. Form becomes more knows, a woman can build up her important than content. Women, yes confidence and involvement, and so and some men too, get lost in this her interest in general meeting in­ world. They’re scared to speak be­ creases. cause they don’t know where they’re “Men’s attitudes towards each at. It’s all impersonal, inhuman. other in union matters could do with “People gut-react to situations, a bit of loosening up, too. A union but in this kind o f meeting, gut organiser told me recently how he was reaction has no place. Everything once called to investigate the becomes confused by the complic­ case of a fellow who’d been sacked. ations o f the procedure. So you has­ The boss claimed his work was no good, which surprised the Union man tily write out a motion — you don’t because he knew this fellow was a want to speak off the cuff in case first-class tradesman. you blunder and everyone will say “Well, he looked at the man’s it’s because you’re a woman. But you know it’s all artificial, you al­ work and saw that the boss was right — it was lousy. He said to the ways wonder if your motion’s going man, ‘What’s wrong? What’s happen­ to die a natural death on the books. ed to your work?’ And suddenly the “Men say you can’t run a big fellow burst into tears, he put his organisation on any other lines, or there’d be bedlam. But there’s some­ head on the union organiser’s shoul­ der and just wept. He told him he thing wrong when you consider the overall membership of a union, and had two kids and rto money, his wife was pregnant again and after two the fact that the decisions are made attempted suicides, because she didn’t by so few people. I couldn’t have want another child, she’d threatened been a union organiser, even before to kill herself and the two kids. The I got into the women’s movement. I poor fellow didn’t know what to didn’t understand why, before, but expect when he went home. now I do. I’ll remain one of the “Added to this, his doctor had peasants. A thinking peasant.” told him he had a gallstone which One way to begin breaking down massive union structures, Zelda sug­ would cost $360 to remove and seven weeks off work. He was going gests, is to adopt limited tenure of off his head. office. “There’s a tendency in many “I asked the union man, ‘What unions to see anyone with potential did you do?’ I thought he might as a threat. No encouragement will be have helped to arrange for an abor­ forthcoming from the top. But if there were limited tenure, union o f­ tion, for a start. But do you know what he said? He said, ‘Oh, you ficials would encourage and develop potential so there’d be someone with can’t get mixed up in this sort of foresight and experience to take their personal business.’ “There shouldn’t be this division place. But limited tenure is the hot­ test of hot potatoes in the union between work and personal life. It’s not good enough, a concern only world.” Zelda believes that if union meet­ with wages and conditions. If I ings were held on the job, preferably couldn’t do more than that to help

understand our whiteness, see it as a permanent part of our consciousness as women and view it with rage”. Discussion of this paper revealed the contradiction in the white women’s movement’s unhierarchical structure and the black movement’s logic which puts whites in the position of followers in their struggle. Sisterhood was seen to be not always straightforward .1 . A paper collectively written by four Hobart women, called “Sexism and women’s liberation; or why do straight sisters sometimes cry when they are called lesbians” created the most fiery exchanges of the conference. The paper claimed sexist d isc r im in a tio n e x iste d in consciousness-raising groups, and in the concept of sisterhood itself. It also attacked movement literature for perpetuating masculinity/feminity stereotypes, albeit updated

versions. Lots more papers were given and many other questions like family structure,, communal living, education, the need for a mass movement and education were raised in small groups and workshops. The fact that it was a live-in conference made for a free-flowing intimate situation. In the summing-up session criticisms were made that the theory papers weren’t discussed down to their nitty-gritty and that some papers were divorced from experience. Further discussion could follow if “Words for Women”, a Sydney-based women’s group, go ahead with plans to publish selected papers from the conference. Postscript: This report makes it all seem terribly serious — but there was lots of laughter, and j o y . . . a beaut weekend.

people, I wouldn’t want to be an official. “Someone told me the other day what a male union official said about me: what a pity Zelda’s got into all that liberation stuff.^She would have made a terrific union organiser. But I could never be an official, the way things are. You’re terribly aware of being in a male world. It’s not just that you’re outnumbered or over­ whelmed. — you’re sort of over­

weighed by men. You’d feel restric­ ted — you’d have to concern your­ self with men’s problems, only you’d have to try and convince them that wpmen’s problems were worth dis­ cussing, and acting upon. “When it comes to the crunch in union matters, we' haven’t got might at the back of us like men have. Women have got to realise they’re on their own. That’s what Women’s Liberation is all about.”

ONE OF THE GREAT STARS OF THE “CONCERT FOR BANGLADESH“.

AUSTRALIAN

TOUR

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Sunday February 4 Royal Melbourne Showgrounds, another in the series o f Slade, Lindisfarne, Caravan, Status Quo concerts that have conglomerated over 20,000 post-Beatle teens in hysterical masses throughout the country. Slade the main draw, once skin head now proletarian pooftah bedazzle their worshippers with glitter mirrors and silver lame. Dave Hill (above) in his self-designed top to toe splendour is a classic in gauche eccentricity.

February 10 — February 24

The crowds, ranging in age from eight to seventeen, love it (again, see above) and express themselves in an orgy o f knicker-throwing. Lindisfarne have been the heavies o f the tour, holding the audiences with the power and beauty of their mass harmonies and breath-taking virtuosity. Slade have brought a new epoch o f screeching-abandon to Australia, whilst on the same bill Lindisfarne have offered euphoric togetherness. Both are considering a return tour in August.

GABY TERR

K e n n e th L o a ch m e e ts D a v id C o o p e r

T h e frightening reality o f Fam ily li f e by Kate Veitch Family Life (Rivoli, Camberwell) takes a look under the elegant covers of western family structures to what squirms beneath, to the processes which have affected us all. Those who have been affected most by these processes are those who can no longer speak of them, as is finally the case with Janice, the girl whose experience is the subject of the Imovie. ' Janice’s parents are solid English working people. Her Dad’s a storeman, has had the sapie jph since the War and never takes time off, is loyal to his firm and mindful of respect, and knows he has done his best as a faithful husband and as a father to his two daughters. Mum is an upright Christian and good housewife who has devoted her life to the kids, especially Janice, the younger girl, who as a child was sweet, tidy and obedient — “ you could walk into her room and it would be so neat it was as though no one lived there”. This is what they want: a child so ordered and controlled .that she is effectively non-existent. But now Janice — played by Sandy Ratcliff, whose performance

goes past good acting into the frightening real — is entering her late teens, and Mum and Dad1 can’t handle it. They are suspicious of thq girl, her desires and her friends. Any| attempt on her part to graduate fo, an independent state is seen as a, direct and malicious rejection o f them. She is given all the" classic guilt lines: she is a Wicked and ungrateful child. Her increasingly desperate need to believe in herself as a real and distinct person asserts itself in a most obvious way — she becomes pregnant* Like so many, other girls who have been denied the opportunity to define the contours of their own personalities, she is eager to have the baby, perhaps in the belief that by producing something that exists peculiarly because of her, she will validate her own existence. Family crisis. Her parents are angry and ashamed, but realise there is only one solution. Janice must have an abortion, though God forbid that such a word should be spoken in a Christian home. The word may not be spoken but the deed must be done, whatever their daughter’s foolish feelings. After all, as her mother says, “You may think you know what you want, child, but 1

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know better than that: I’m your mother and I know what you want”. Janice doesn’t see it that way. Her mother, she maintains, has killed her baby and wants to kill her, too. We see her in bed at night; on her found belly she draws a child-like stick figure, crying rows of tears down to its feet. It’s one of the few scenes in Family Life which could be viewed as poignant to the point of sentimentality, but for me memories of people I have known made it horrifying. Young girls, taught to objectify their own bodies, often physically mutilate themselves when they encounter madness, a reaction which I have always found a confusedly honest extension of the normal female role in society and the family. A close friend of mine once carved “I am ugly” on her stomach. I now begin to understand that she was attempting not to destroy herself but to survive in a far more real sense than those around her could allow. After several more incidents, Janice still struggling to live arid

grow without hurting her parents, they send her to a psychiatrist recommended by their GP. They are very dubious when they take Janice to his ward at the mental hospital — young people, boys with long hair and girls in jeans, sit round talking and singing, no drug therapy of any kind is being used, and the psychiatrist ¿its in jeans and a jumper talking with them. It’s an open environment, and others in situations similar to hers are trying to express and understand themselves. Is this the beginning of the girl’s finding herself? But such an approach threatens the power structure of more than the family; the psychiatrist is dismissed from the hospital, his unit and treatment are discontinued, and Janice is transferred to the care of another doctor. After a glimpse of how madness can be truly understood, the new ward with its uniformed nurses, electro-convulsive therapy and indiscriminate tranquilising is absolutely terrifying. It is how the main body of the hospital is run, it is how most mental hospitals are run, and it is frightening to see it so clearly. The process is aimed at getting Janice to live within the profoundly negative structure of her family and the life they lead. They succeed: she is returned to her parents and goes to work m a chocolate factory.!

L ik e it o r lu m p it, sa ys m e d ic

They take her total mental and physical passivity for recovery, and are enraged when her visiting elder sister, in a harrowing and brilliantly revealing scene, accuses them of being responsible for her condition. Late one night Janice makes a desperate attempt to establish her selfness and to reject them. Amazed and shocked by what they see as an act of spite, they return her to the hospital.

“I reckon it started four years ago. This girl I lived with had these lumps and I reckon I got them in sympathy with her; I felt hers and she felt mine. “I couldn’t get it together to go to a doctor, except if it was killing me or I fainted. Then, because of the loneliest time in my life, I spent a lot of time with my hands in my pants. “I went to dinner at the Taj four times because I was going to die. That happened for about one and a half months, and everyone thought I was going to die, arid I really loved that, I’m afraid. Then I had dinner with a friend who really likes me and who suggested that I go to her doc­ tor who was really sympathetic. “It was a converted house, plusri as hell, a clinic with three doctors. Her doctor wasn’t in and they had a relieving doctor. I went down this little corridor. He stood there looking defensive and frightened, backing into a comer as I came down the hall shouting about these lumps. “It was gloomy as hell in this little room. I just felt like a big fucking truck driver — everything sounded really loud — in with a really serious disease; as though I had a dirty disease the way he look­ ed at fne. “He looked like every medical student you have ever seen only older and shrivelled. He told me to get up on his couch. When he took my pants down, approaching out of the gloom, he was holding his hands like they were two prize butterflies over my groin. He touch­ ed the lumps diffidently and asked how my health was in relation to the lum ps,.! said of course I’ve had the usual case of non-specific,

and the two butterflies flew up like there was a crow in my pants. “I said I was only 'worried about cancer. He said, O not there. Why not there, because it’s dirty? He gave me some kind of antibiotic. I told him, because I thought it was relevant, that there was sometimes blood on the toilet paper. He said; when, after you go to the toilet? If I’d had blood on the paper before I’d have complained to the super­ market. “I was standing there with the prescription in my hand. He was still looking scared as hell. He told me to take the pills and come back and he could tell if they’d improved or not. When I asked what they were he just said it was some kind o f poison. “The lumps kept shifting about like an abacus — sometimes three on the left one on the right sometimes two on each side. After a week I went back. He felt them and said he reckoned they were a lot better, and I ended up saying yes, yes. “He forgot to tell me that you don’t drink piss while you’re on antibiotics. I went to the pub and got pissed. I took the two pills and forgot whether I’d taken two and took another one and went and sat out in the sun. At the end of the afternoon I felt as though I was lying in a box of pins, my skin was prick­ ling and popping all over. “It didn’t occur to me to get out of the sun. I just went orange and wherever I touched anything it just smarted like hell. I kept taking the pills, sort of in pain but not connect­ ing it with side effects. He never told me anything about side effects and the only reason I knew they were antibiotics was because some­ body in the office recognised the name and told me. “Towards the end my hands and

Com prom ising experim ental theatre

by Maria Kreisler Comfortably entrenched South Yarra theatre-goers are in for a few From here it is round, round, down — a psychic spiral which ends shocks in the coming season. St. with human beings being better Martin’s customary second-hand termed vegetables, or guinea pigs. West End productions have been ousted to make way for a theatre of Family Life is one of the few new ideas and experimentation, and things T have seen on the screen that above all for ensemble work, makes a decision for the real, and potentially the most creative of all allows the viewer to do the same. theatrical styles. There are some mistakes, a few Christopher Muir, administrator scenes that are over-structured or of the theatre and director of The gauche, but if films follow this that Collector, has invited probably the are equally honest and clear-sighted, most original group in Australia, maybe there is reason for hope. Sydney’s Performance Syndicate Far back in the strange days of headed by Rex Cfariiphorrie, ' to my childhood, when I was curious make St. Martin’s their base for an and unsure of my own reality, I extended season of plays. A few remember wordlessly asking myself other new faces have joined the questions concerned with the theatre,: among them musician Tina establishment of existence. For me, Jorgensen. the answers slid gradually into place. Reorganisation alone, however, Family Life is a study of someone cannot bring about an overnight forced by those around her into a revolution. This is made clear by the position where she is unable to first production of the season, David conceive of those answers, much less Parker’s stage adaptation of The glimpse what they might be; and it Collector, the novel by John Fowles. shows how society punishes those on The opening moments of the play whom it has inflicted this disability. indicate that the new style is as yet merely grafted on to the old, and that they work uneasily together: the play begins with a beautiful piece *of symbolic mime in the Japanese manner (much of the Syndicate’s work shows oriental influence) followed by a song in darkness, but then the curtain opens on to the same old. naturalistic sets and the feet swelled up so much I couldn’t actors adopt mostly realistic even move and it was about then conventions with only occasional somebody said “reaction to anti­ symbolic moments. biotics”. The cast of two in The Collector “I went down to see him again., includes only one member of the His office was still dim. I said look I Performance Syndicate, Nick Lathhave got terrible sunburn. By this ouris, known in Melbourne for his time I was looking like something brilliant Rrospero in the Syndicate’s out o f planet of the apes. Without Tem pest Playing opposite him is even looking at me he said: Well you guest actor Pamela Stephenson. are one in 10,000. You are photo­ Parker’s script, however, doesn’t sensitive. He said, with an ironic match the novel. John Fowles’ laugh: we’ll keep you off these/ monstrous character Clegg, a symbol “I didn’t argue because I haven’t of emptiness and greed, who collects spent eight years at Melbourne Uni. dead butterflies and finally adds to and 15 years in practice. He gave me his collection a living girl whom he a prescription for some ointment. secretly loves, becomes in the play “Really I was just four balloons simply a human being, deformed at my extremities. Just four ball­ by humiliation and frustrated desire. oons. They shook with waves of The playwright reduces the kidnap­ plasma. You could see these waves per’s peculiar crime from symbolic going backwards and forwards. My to social terms, interpreting it as an hands and feet looked like giant act motivated by the inferiority blisters. complex Clegg suffers from on acc­ “Meanwhile the lumps have prob­ ount o f his working-class origins and ably undergone several different cha­ his whole miserable upbringing, nges but I have lost track of them. which makes it impossible for him to I will probably stick with my lumps approach the sophisticated girl, and do nothing about it. whom he feels to be his social “My last experience with doctors superior, in any way other than was when I was six years old. The through violence. doctor was bald and had a carbuncle Nick Lathouris’ ugly little clerk on his head. He used to call me ‘old is devoured by a passion which he chap’. He’d sit on my bed and my knows can only be realised in mother would bring in cups o f tea dreams: the play is a fantasy in and he’d tell me why I was sick. which the dream comes true. Clegg “I don’t think it’s like a car mech­ suddenly acquires a great deal of anic — they take the head off and money, buys a lonely old houke with check the valves and call you old a cellar, and kidnaps the girl. The chap and screw it back on again. sensational nightmare begins. It’s just I was pretty amazed that Wiat goes unnoticed as a con­ this is what happens when you go sequence o f the play’s oversimplifi­ to the doctor’s. cation are important implications “The big bitch is that I wasn’t such as the essential differences bet­ looking to him to call me old chap ween the two characters’ ways of or feel sorry for me or even look up thinking and feeling. Clegg (signifi­ my bum at my piles; but I did expect to be told that when I went cantly called alternatively Ferdin­ out in the sun I might be as volatile and — the Prince of Shakespeare’s as a box of unexposed film.” Tempest — and Caliban — the Mon­

Physician, heal thyself by a modest Digger

T he C o lle c to r d isa p p o in ts

ster) and Miranda speak different languages, not only because o f their class differences, but because one of them knows the luxury of freedom and spontaneity while the other is too constipated to trust anything but the power o f money. Miranda’s captivity, instead of bringing her closer to her jailer as he hopes, only makes her more remote from him. Clegg realises this, and thus the efforts she does make to communicate with fim are in vain, so deeply rooted js his sense of inferiority and so ardent his desire to master what he cannot aspire to be. The girl herself, as Fowles says in the novel, “was arrogant in her ideas, a prig, a liberal-humanist snob, like so many university students. Yet if she had not died she might have become something better, the kind of being humanity so desperately needs” . She cannot, for all her prog­ ressive tolerance, accept Clegg as he is. His crazy idea that Miranda might come to love him when she knows him better is unbelievable even to himself. For Miranda it is another proof of his odious vulgarity that he can conceive of love not bom of freedom. Of the two it is the jailer who is the more hopelessly imprison­ ed in his despair and his obsession. In spite of his odiousness, Lath­ ouris’ Clegg is also pitiful, and at times evei moving. Miranda, on the other hand, with all her culture and charm, sometimes appears superficial and hard. The roles of torturer and tortured alter­ nate, until Clegg finally becomes the victor, but only at the price of the last vestiges of his humanity. The Beauty and the Beast story is rever­ sed here, since the Beauty does not saye the Beast, but instead seals his doom. The principle theme o f the novel, that o f beauty and creativity being sucked in and destroyed by the empty, possessive force o f evil, goes by the board in Parker’s stage adapt­ ation. Instead, he stresses class antag­ onism and the destructive power of money. The play gains in clarity but loses depth and universality. Some o f Fowles’ original concern might have survived had Pamela Stephen­ son’s Miranda acted less the social snob and frivolous butterfly and more as an intelligent and sensitive; product of a meaningful culture. Tina Jorgensen’s music, especially her song to open and close the show, deserves particular praise. It was the touch needed to save the play from over-explicitness and to lift it out o f the realm o f straight naturalism. Nick Lathouris plays his role real­ istically, at the expense of symbol­ ism. It is an excellent creation within the playwright’s and producer’s con­ ception o f the play, but runs against Lathouris’ usually highly formal and imaginative style, characteristic of the Performance Syndicate. Perhaps when the rest o f the group arrives he will show what he can really do. It is clear that the old St. Martin’s style and the new experimental one do 'hot mix. There is no possibility of a successful compromise, no half­ way house between the two. If there’s going to be a revolution in theatre, it has to be carried through wholeheartedly.

Page 9

The Digger

February 10 — February 24

tion of the crowd, leering for Thorpe through set after set a full twentyfour hours before the Aztecs’ first slot.; Odessa finally booked the Indelible Murtceps, in a last minute package deal with American band Spirit, to play unbilled spots on Friday night.

with Lawrie, slide guitarist from Carson, to back his acoustic guitar, harmonica and rough, pleading vocals in a very well worked-out set o f his own songs, most o f them brand new; and the crowd just wouldn't let him off.

H ie A ztecs o ff the Pedestal

PETER GOROG

Queuing for a drink at $8 a head

Thorpie: new music, not quite the old magic

S u n b u ry fr o m th e flo o r:

SING YOU BASTARDS! by Jenny Brown Sunbury ’73: financially success­ ful; artistically spare; environmentwise a dirty drag.

Sanity and Sanitation American festivals are all over since high tax-per-head legislation was introduced to withhold sites in almost every state (bar Indian Reser­ vation land), but American promoter, Dick Goldstein, here with Spirit, ran three before the new laws came down.

Goldstein was negatively stunned by Odessa Promotions’ sanitary pro­ visions for the three days. Legal demands were probably met, but if these were set out before triple-day rock festivals, drawing tens of thou­ sand, were dreamed up, they: should not be used as a practical^ healthy guide to festival sanitation: Sunbury would have provided per­ haps one toilet to a hundred urinators. With the crowd conservatively estimated at 30,000, and the beer being sunk as rapidly as it was, stepped-up waste-production rate

N E W A L B U M RELEASES A selection from

the albums released locally during February 1973.

Dave Allman: An Anthology — Capricorn — 2 record set. Elvin Bishop Band: Rock My Soul — Epic. David Bowie: The Man Who Sold The World — RCA. Space Oddity — RCA. Captain Beefheart: Clean Spot — Reprise. David Clayton-Thomas: Tequila Sunrise — CBS. Rita Coolidge: The Lady’s Not For Sale — A & M. Crazy Horse: At Crooked Lake — Epic. Creedence Clearwater Revival: Gold — Fantasy. Crow: Best of Crow — Amaret. Sandy Denny — Island. \ Delaney and Bonnie: Best of D & B — Atlantic. The Dillards: Wheatstraw Suite — Elektra. Slim Dusty: Foolin’ Around — Columbia. Grateful Dead: Europe ’72 — Warner Bros. — 3 record set. A1 Green: Gets Next To You — London. Merle Haggard: Let Me Tell You ’Bout A Song — Capitol. Tim Hardin: Painted Head — CBS. Barry Humphries: Record of Innocent Austral Verse — Phillips. James Gang: Passin’ Thru — Probe. Doug Kershaw: Devil’s Elbow — Warner Bros. Manfred Mann Earth Band: Glorified Magnified- Phillips. John May all: Moving On — Poly dor. Curtis Mayfield: Superfly (sound-track) —<Buddah. Bette Midler: The Divine Miss M. — Atlantic. Frankie Miller: Once In A Blue Moon — Chrysalis. The Mothers: The Grand Wazoo — Reprise. Mott the Hoople: All the Young Dudes — CBS John McLaughlin: Devotion — CBS. Don McLean — United Artists. Buck Owens: Live at The Nugget — Capitol. P ilo t-R C A . Plainsong: In Search of Amelia Earhart - Elektra. Redbone: Already Here — Epic. Rolling Stones: Rock ’n’ Rolling Stones — Decca. Carly Simon: No Secrets — Elektra. John David Souter — Asylum. Status Quo: Piledriver — Vertigo. Steeleye Span: Below the Salt — Chrysalis. Ten Years After: Rock and Roll Music to‘the World — Chrysalis. Tower o f Power: East Bay Grease — Atlantic. Jesse Winchester: Third Down, 110 To Go — Bearsville.

soon made things pretty tacky. The one backstage/press area toilet wouldn’t flush and was brimming with malevolent diarrhoeia by Satur­ day night. There were a couple of last year’s stinky steel unflushables discovered Sunday morning in the bands’ camping area, but only bladder-busting need could quell the instinct to avoid them like the plague. Shower facilities were very limit­ ed, reportedly very public, and locat­ ed exclusively at the top o f Sunbury’s long, hot, rocky and denselypopulated hill, near the entry gates. Jackson Creek, boundary-marker for the site, originally appeared to havq almost got over last year’s ass­ ault, although a reddish scum floated on its surface and the long straps of drifting weed had gone. However, by Saturday morning it was churned into a mud thickshake whose only comfort was its liquidity. Rubbish bins were often hard to find and festival-goers sat, ate and slept among tons of their own gar­ bage. Thankfully, the glass ban was generally upheld. Despite there only being one or two water taps in sight o f the stage, there was a serious possibility at one stage that the supply would be exhausted. The Coke was warm and the pies were cold, but prices were high. Dennis Catering apparently had a

monopoly on the food trade at Sunbury, controlling the booking of food stalls as the Australian Enter­ tainment Exchange did the booking of the entertainment, subject to Odessa’s final approval. One man who inquired about setting up a Chinese food stall was told by Dennis reps, that he would have to first fork out a figure in the thousands for the privilege... he left the trade to big business. The captive market bought Sun­ bury t-shirts, consumed Coke, pies, and Chiko rolls by the hundred­ weight, driven on by hunger, de­ hydration and boredom. 5)C % 5(5

Play It Again, Sam Musically, Sunbury was a medi­ ocre success. Unlike last year there were few surprises, and only a hand­ ful of acts seemed to have something special up their sleeves for a big crowd under extraordinary condi­ tions,; The general quality of musical ability was high/ but there was no real climax to the three days’ and nights’ entertainment. The addition of an orchestra and a wider range of music were nice but rather predictable advances on last year’s program, and the “wider range” theory meant, in practice, that almost half of the scheduled acts were given forty-five minutes

Murtceps did a fifty-minute bracket at 11.00 pm, for the money The first Aztecs set yras a bad one they originally requested and were and the crowd reaction was only fair turned down for. by Aztec standards. The band seemed The band went over well, singer/ uncertain and so did the audience: guitarist Micre Udd at delicious both wanted last year's madness. The heights of self- and other parodies. group was obviously under terrific Murtceps fiddled around in their pressure from all directions. Some favourite festival song “Going new songs, the act altered to fit in a Home”, inventing a spontaneous piece long percussive break, but basically chorusing “I’ve got the Wog Blues” . still the Aztecs. Sunday night's brack­ (Some sniffley, sweaty, whining kind et was reportedly better, but the of ’flu was spreading through the myth that shielded the Aztecs from band at the time... “the Wog” .) fallibility was bound to crack, and After a short encore, Murtceps crack it did. made way for Spirit — who were not MacKenzie Theory were one of only completely unexpected, but also the few to use imagination with unknown and unheard. their festival set. Given the lousy job Lead guitarist John Staehely left o f following the Aztecs on Saturday an already cautious audience totally night, they still managed to take off numbed as he ran onstage in his with the crowd. silver spacesuit, followed by big bro­ In blue satin, denim, and circusy ther A1 and Spirit’s wild-eyed ex­ daubings o f color, Theory played a session drummer, Stu Perry. soaring set o f their newest* fastest Slinging into “Chelsea Girls” from and rarest numbers. No vocals, elec­ their last album, the band showed a tric viola; intense, complex compo­ slick raunchiness which the crowd sitions. Midway through “Thing on a took to, although they weren’t so sure about the American flash and String” , the band dropped from a savage ascending curve into an old razzle-dazzle (“Pooftahs?”). Good reactions were purely due time waltz, and a couple in tails and to stark playing ability and to John’s gown spun across the stage in a spot­ manipulated freak-outs on guitar... light. The spot cut, and the band eerie, disappearing echoes and squeals roared up again. Rather surreal. Country Radio played two sets o f which he twisted from out of the gadgetry. Perry’s busy, vicious their wistful, saddle-straddling rock or less (down to fifteen, for Mulga drumming on his big two-bass kit, which jumped from a wary restraint Bill’s Bicycle Band) to perform. Set­ supplemented by A1 Staeheley’s into rough, emotional baring o f the ting up most acts took about fifteen tough bass and vocals, won most, brain-cells, shortly after vocalist Greg minutes. Quill copped a beer can on the head although the numbness remained in The musical program stretched those who were suspicious that the at dusk on Sunday. It was the current line-up’s last over seventeen or eighteen hours on yanks might’ve been putting them on. gig, and coupled with file mounting Saturday and Sunday, which was Most bands were content with good seeing there wasn’t much to do duplicating sets and stage acts they tension o f nightfall and the constant but watch and listen to it. No films Use week after week at discos, dances rain of tin missiles (at the towers, the (and the lightshow was consistently and pubs. This gruelling method of crowd, the bands, anything) Country bad), no onstage theatre, no carnival, playing for a living has created some Radio just blew like an overloaded no games to play but mind games. of the most competent players any­ steam-train whistle. The crowd re­ Little wonder so many got wacked where —notably the incestuous mem­ sponded to Quill’s resultant abuse, (and stayed that way for as long as berships of Healing Force, Friends, and his show o f raw nerve — “ Sing, possible) on booze and/or dope and/ Mighty Mouse, Chain, Matt Taylor’s you bastards! Fucking get into it!” — or acid. A very stoned festival. band and Joy Band — who, however with enthusiasm, and finally went mad singing; clapping and can-rattling The music, or a lot of it, was often have their creativity and drive to the meanest encore “ Gypsy crushed out in the process. recorded on Channel Nine’s sixteenBut Sunbury’s thousands brought Queen” Country Radio have ever track machine for the brand-new played; Blanchflower's mouth-organ out the best in most o f these. Mushroom Label, organised by Gudwailing like a tripping nightingale, Healing Force played two sets so inski and Barker from AEE. Hope­ John A. Bird shooting out chords professional, tight and happy that fully, acts not affiliated with that from the keyboards like fountains, it smarted. Swinging off late Saturday agency will appear on. the resul­ Tolhurst frantic on mandolin," and the night with Leon Russell’s “Alcatraz” , tant triple-set live release, which is they beat the Shelter people at their rest o f the band playing their guts now being rush-produced to hit the own game, and ranted off well into out. racks as soon as possible. The crowd was after excitement — the night with a mixture of beau­ It’s bloody hard to tell what bands tifully-arranged covers and originals be it joy, anger, intoxication, or the mass of the crowd will remember, laced-up unmistakably Healing Force. even just blood. but Mighty Mouse, Carson, Friends, * * * If any established band was an honest Murtceps, Madder Lake, Matt Taylor, all-round hit at Sunbury, it was Rock Festivals are always sounded Band of Light, Country Radio, the this one. off as nudity, watermelon seeds, good Aztecs, MacKenzie Theory, Healing Friends and Mighty Mouse were Force, 69ers, Flying Circus and Ross similarly classy, yet lacked that surge music and sleeping upder the stars. , They are also dirt and boredom; Ryan were popular, as far as is of direction... a little less thought, a exhaustion and frustration. Sunbury gaugable from audience reaction and little more disorganisation. '73 was all those things. It just general report. The loudest reactions Matt Taylor, up from the farm, depends on where you’re sitting, and often came from pissed hard-rock freaks down the front, only a frac­ combined most o f Mighty Mouse who’s sitting on you.

i

Page 10

The Digger

February 10 — February 24

MELBOURNE FLYER Print CantrilFs Filmnotes —If you are into esoteric film-making you’ll be interested to know that the latest issue has articles by or about Gregory Markopoulos, Chris Hiller and Paul Winkler. $3.60 for six issues, - $7.20 for 12. (Source, Readings). Gay Rays — New gay paper, describes itself as radical; put out by Melbourne Gay Lib. Article by a gay guy who had aversion therapy, an argument against the concept of hormonally in d u c e d or cured homosexuality, news and reports of local injustice. A few jokes. (Available from Melbourne Gay Lib., 23 Davis Street, North Carlton).

Identity - First national Aboriginal publication in Australia. Glossy, color magazine, has the highest circulation of any Australian

quarterly. The latest issue the first put out by new editor John Newfong, an Aboriginal journalist appeared just before the Federal elections and includes articles on black power, Australia’s political parties, and Aborigines in parliament. Also a very sharp article by Lillian Holt on sexism and racism from the point of view of a black woman. (Most bookshops and big newsagencies. Subscriptions $2 a year). C le a rc re e k — An environment magazine with special emphasis on American Indian life, art, and present situation. Published in San Francisco; costs 75 cents a copy. Latest issue includes Indian poetry, Eco-tactics for Citizen Action; the Hopi Tribal Council; Stewardship or Fraud; American Indian cookery, and a back issues index. (Source, Readings). Vashti’s Voice: (no. 2) M e lb o u r n e W om en’s L ib eratio n publication. Vashti was a biblical queen who jacked up when her husband wanted to display her publicly as one of his chattels. Articles on Freud and sexual oppression, women in China, how to mend a fuse. (Women’s Centre, Readings) P.O. Box 13 2 C a r lto n fo r contributors.

mm IS NOW A MEMBER OF MOUNTAIN . WAS . PRODUCER FOR CREAM

Services Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service: 231 Gertrude St, Fitzroy. 419.3648. Office staffed 9—5. Soon to have a resident solicitor. Special service for black people with legal problems. Fitzroy Free Legal Service: Legal advice free to anyone who needs it. Solicitor on duty Mon-Sat 5.30-11 p.m. Condell Street entrance. Fitzroy Town Hall. 41.5038. Free Education Referral Service: inspired by the visit of Illich and Jackson last year. Constant display centre in Bourke’s the ACTU store. If you need or can give help, ring Robert Quinlan at Farrago office, Melbourne University. 347.7202. Women’s Centre, 16 Lt. Latrobe St, 347.1564.' Staffed Mon-Fri office hours. At the Centre there’s always a sister or. two to answer your questions, refer you to people who can help you, give you a friendly ear, a cup of coffee and a pleasant place to calm down if things are getting heavy. W om en’s M o v e m en t publications are on sale there. If you’re interested in joining a women’s group you can make enquiries at the Centre about a group in your area.

I I j j I

L e a r n in g E x ch an g e: non-institutional way of sharing knowledge. Teach or learn; advertise your needs or skills in the information sheet. Ring 50.3286. Link-up is setting up abroad service to help people in need before they reach crisis point. Information will be integrated and available through a 24-hour 7-day phone service - staffed by volunteers trained by psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers. Money and help needed. Contact Robbie Rosenberg, 34 Hawthorn Glen, Hawthorn. 81.8584.

Bummers Tamani in Lygon St, Carlton is a place to avoid unless you enjoy being tweaked, winked and leered at, tediously teased and otherwise objectified by continental chauvinists. Give it a miss. Twin Hamburger Bar, Lygon St, Carlton has the dubious distinction of being the only late-opening food place in Carlton outside of Johnny’s Green Room. The Twin proprietors last week refused to lend their phone to a bleeding, half-stunned guy who’d just been beaten up by thugs outside the Albion Hotel.

25,000 spring-chicken kneed teenagers crammed Melbourne Showgrounds for a Slade concert Digger reporter Jenny Brown was there (near the lower right corner o f the photo, with the silver-star in her hair), and wrote lots about it that, alas, space and time have conspired to thwart...

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Film

Cults His Divine Grace A.C. B h a k tiv e d an ta Swami Prabhupada, Spiritual Master of the Hare Krishna Movement, is in town.,

FOR SA LE A S H A G G IN G W A G O N

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Devotees claim “ the whole mission of the human form of life can be fulfilled by simply touching the lotus feet of the holy man” . Last p u b lic appearance in Melbourne: Bhagavad-gita discourse, Palais Theatre, St Kilda, F'ri. 9 F’eb., 7 p.m.

Movies: One-shots Festival of Jean-Luc Godard films, Union Theatre, M elbourne U niversity 34.0484. Feb 12: Bande a part, Weekend. Feb. 13: Masculin-P’eminin, The Married Woman. Feb. 14: Bande a part, Two or Three Things I Know about Her. Feb. 15: Two or Three Things I Know About Her, j The Married Woman.

Feb. 16: The Married Woman, Weekend. Feb. 17: W eekend, Masculin-F eminin. M elbourne Fim-makers’ Co-op, 161 Spring Street, 662.3418. Season of films by Melbourne’s Peter Tammer and one by Jim Wilson, another local man. Feb 22-Mar 18. The Curse of Laradjongram, A Woman of our Time (about Myra Roper); minor titles The Commercial, Where are You Taking Me?, On the Ball, Pisces Dying, and Our Luke. All by Tammer. Wilson: K Tape One.

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166 H IG H ST. P R A H R A N

February 10 — February 24

The Digger

Page 11

SYDNEY FLYER I Tighes Hill Technical College every Tuesday at 8.00 p.m.

M U S IC

The folk clubs at UNSW and Sydney will be back in action as soon as term starts. For further information you can write to the NSW Folk Federation, P.O. Box 136, Punchbowl, NSW 2193. If we’ve neglected to list your favorite place, please let us know at the Digger . . . we’d like to know about it too.

Folk Music You can trip on the folk sce^ie at the following places: Elizabeth Hotel, Elizabeth St. Sydney Folk Club meets in the lounge on Friday and Saturdays at 8.00 p.m. The Irish Musicians Folk Club are there on Wednesdays at 8.00 p.m. Castlereagh Hotel, Park St. Macquarie Folk Club hang out in the lounge on Thursday at 8.00 p.m. Brittania Hotel, Cleveland St, Chippendale. The Brittania Folk Club are here on Fridays from 8.00 p.m. YWCA, Liverpool St. The Pact Folk Club meet in the cellar on Fridays and Saturdays from 8.00 p.m. Wentworth Park Hotel. Tom Doyle’s Folk Club get it on here on Saturdays from 4.00 p.m. onwards. Sydney Technical College. The Bush Music Club meet on the 8th floor of the Marcus Clarke Building every Tuesday at 8.00 p.m. Balmain Volunteer, 1 Queen’s Place, Balmain. There is folk and jug music here from Wednesday to Saturday after dark. Kirk Gallery, 422 Cleveland St, Surry Hills. What’s called ‘live contemporary music’ is on every Sunday at 8.00 p.m. for $1. The Place, 57 Bayswater Rd, Kings Cross. A tiny coffee shop. Spontaneous and informal music emerges at all hours. Wayside Chapel, 29 Hughes St, Potts Point. Folkies often congregate in the coffee shop here. Newcastle. The Newcastle (the town, not the pub) Folk Club meet in the basement of the Clegg building in the

Jazz The jazz scene is pretty quiet and hard to find but there’s a bit around. Try Albury Hotel, 6 Oxford St, Paddington for trad, jazz on Thursday and Friday night from 7.00 till 10.00 and on Saturday afternoons. French’s Tavern, 86 Oxford St, Darlinghurst. Jazz and blues Monday to Saturday. Jason’s Jazz Club, 269 Crown St, Surrey Hills. Jazz every Sunday night. King Arthur Court Hotel, 22§ William St, in the Cross — modern jazz from Thursday to Saturday. Newport Jazz Restaurant, 387 Barrenjoey Rd, Newport Beach. Stuff happening most every day including Sundays. ‘Buffet Supper’ is three bucks. Monaghan’s Wine Bar, 9 Pittwater Rd, Manly has jazz and rock coming down often. New Rocks Push, 250 Pitt St. Two bands every night. A bit of a nightclub. Old Push, 111 George St North. Same sort of deal just a bit funkier. The Stage Club, 303 Cleveland St, Redfern. Sun­ days four till eight.

We’d dig to hear where jazz fiends congregate please let us know what’s happening.

PHONE

Wayside Chapel Crisis Program. (35-1010 & 35-6577) 29 Hughes St, Potts Point. Alcoholics Anonymous (26-6968) 550 George St, Sydney. Al-anon Family Groups (31-9668) Cnr Bourke and Burton Sts, Darlinghurst. Divorce Law Reform Association (95-3211) PO Box R325 Royal Exchange. Insight, P.O.Box 429, St. Marys. Callan Park Psychiatric Centre (82-6601) Balmain Rd, Rozelle, 2039. Public Solicitor (61-6581) 55 Market St, Sydney. Law Society of NSW (25-5395) 170 Phillip St, Sydney. Legal Service Bureau 32-34 York St, Sydney. Council for Civil Liber­ ties (660-7582) 149 St Johns St, Glebe. Aboriginal Legal Service (669-1109) 142 Regent St, Redfern. Family Planning Associ­ ation of Australia (62-5211) 92 City Rd, Chippendale.

GUIDE Alternative Community Telephone (698-2652). Box 23, PO Surrey Hills, 2010. Wpmen’s Liberation. 25 Alberta St, Sydney. Gay Liberation. 67 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe. (660.4687) between 7 pm and 10 pm. Camp Inc. (82-4023) Box 5074, GPO, Sydney. Abortion Action Cam­ paign. C/- 25 Alberta St, Sydney. Abortion Law Reform Association. (36-6016). Box C35, Clarence St PO, Sydney. Women’s Electoral Lobby (36-2245) PO Box 24 Neutral Bay Junction 2089. Revolutionary Marxist Group PO PO Box 13, Balmain 2041'. Socialist Youth Alliance' (26-2121) 139 St Johns St, Glebe. Australian Labor Party (26t2732) 377 Sussex St, Glebe. Communist Party of Australia (26-2161) 4 Dixon St, Sydney. Glebe Anti-Expressway Group (660-5835) PO Box 82, Glebe. Sydney Day Nursery & Nursery Schools Assoc. (26-5421) 39 Park St, Sydney. Lifeline (33-4141). Poisons Information Centre (51-0466). Drug Referral Centre (31-2579) 43 Craigend St, Darlinghurst &. 91 Pittwater Road, Manly (977-2197).

Venereal Disease, NSW Health Dept. 93 Macquarie St, Sydney. United Dental Hospital (211-4322) 2 Chalmers St, Surrey Hills. Alternative Health Centre 23 Collins St, Surrey HiÜs. Ecology Action (29-6717) 189 Clarence St, Sydney. Public Interest Research Group (PRIG) C/- SRC Level 1, Wentworth Building, Uni of Sydney.

FREEBIES

Digger has 30 free passes to

THE SUNSHINE SEA ANOTHER FILM BY THE MAKERS OF 5 SUMMER STORIES Send a s.a.e. to Sunshine Sea, 15 Avenue Rd., Glebe, 2 037.

N IM R O D S T R E E T T H E A T R E P R E S E N T S

Pres. Wilson in Paris by Ron Blair, directed by John Bell OPENS F E B R U A R Y 7 Tues-Sat 8.30 pm; Sun - 7.30 pm; Sat. mat 5.30 pm. Bookings — Mitchell's, D.J/s & Theatre: 31-3754

The P o rt J a ck so n F o lk F e stiv a l:

W hatever happened toWbolsheds? by Terence Maher

It was a festival I wasn’t going to miss. The second Port Jackson Folk Festival. Visions of long nights where boisterous rowdy chorus would intermix with booze to make for over-indulgence. 1 had been there many times before. In Canberra, Melbourne, Brisbane and Wagga. But not in Sydney “where our country got its start” . And I fondly remember the old folkie days; the duffle coat, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, American folk music. Yes we sang th e occasional Irish-Australian song but they weren’t as important then. You have to understand that listening to someone singing live , and singing live yourself can be a bit of a trip. As a means of e x pr ession and com m unication it is unsurpassed. The High Fidelity resulting from its practice is far better than your best stereo. With all this tucked in my mind 1 went off to find the festival dressed in my colonial period army shirt, blue jeans, riding boots and old waistcoat. I didn’t know where the Friday night reception would be. By sheer accident I came across it at the Arts Appreciation Centre, 168 Day Street “ com m unist co untry” someone later told me. All the lads were there from round the country. “Declan Affley has come back from Ireland for the festival”, said Danny Watson the president of the NSW Folk Federation. Watson, a 2 8-year-old 1 pluipbing consultant is one of the new breed of folk bureaucrats. Affley, a shaggy miisician with a drunken gait, is the doyen of the Australian folk scene. Affley will play or sing anything to earn a shaky living out of the business. Watson, who neither sings nor plays, is in the business of running the Federation, folk clubs and of course, the Festival. The NSW F o lk Federation is, according to unreliable sources, run by a group fondly known as the 13 voiceless men. They are said to meet every Tuesday at 8 pm behind closed doors at the Paddington Town

THEATRE Barefoot In The Park by Neil Simon dir Kevin Jackson. Genesian Theatre, 420 Kent 29-6454. F ri and Sat at 8.15 p.m. Price: $2. Banjo by and dir Norman McVicker. Pocket Playhouse Theatre, 94 Terry St, Syden­ ham. Re-opens Jan 13, Fri and Sat at 8 p.m. Prices: $2, concessions: students and pensigners $1.50. Beauty and the Beast by Charles Perraut, dir Norman Mclver. Pocket Theatre, 94 Terry St, Sydenham. Sat at 1.30 p.m. Prices: children 80c, adults $1.40. By Candlelight by S. Geyer, dir. Alastair Duncan. Community Theatre, 2 Marian St, Killara 498-3166. Tues-Sat 8.15, Sun. 7.30. P r ic e s : $3, $2.25. Concessions: students and pensioners $1.50. Dirty D ick’s Theatre Restaurant 313 Pacific High­ way, Crows Nest. A musical entertainment based on “Elizabethan Days”. Tues to Fri $7, Sat $8, Sun $5.50, 8.10 p.m. to midnight. Booking s: 929-8888. Dance Explorations. Four pieces by four ‘young’ c h o re o g ra p h e rs. New Theatre, St Peter’s Lane, East Sydney 31-3237. Feb. 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, Mar. 2, 3 at 8.15. Price: $2. Concessions: students $1, child and pensioners 70 cents. Don’s Party by David Williamson, dir John Clark. Old Tote Theatre Company, Parade Theatre, UNSW, Anzac Parade, Kensing ton, 663-6122. Mon to Sat at 8. Sat Mat at 2. Prices: Mon to Thurs $3.50, Fri and Sat $4, Sat Mat $3. Concessions: to students Mon to Thurs and Sat Mat. Gloria Snorkes musical revue at the Fishmongers Hall, 336 Pitt St. 26-5313. Opens Feb.

Hall. They have a passion for organisation which is surpassed only by their arrogance. One of the first things I picked up at the reception on Friday night was a copy of Danny Watson’s Roster “ for the attention of, people p resen tin g workshops, appearing on concerts (sic) committee members and people asked to assist with the running of the festival. “The purpose of the roster is to ensure that responsible people are present at all times.” It went on to tell ticket collectors that “ access . . . that will interrupt with the orderly running of the workshops should not be permitted” . Ticket collectors “are further asked to assist the orderly running of the function in any manner that seems fit at the time, to ensure that smoking and eating in the hall is kept to a minimum and that the hall is left in a reasonable state of cleanliness” . Performers

were warned that smoking and drinking “are definitely not permitted on stage”. Watson concluded his roster by saying that the purpose of the Festival was to bolster the depleted finances of the NSW Folk Federation and to gain organisational experience for 1974 when NSW hopes to stage the 8th National Folk Festival (last year, Canberra, this year, Melbourne). The Arts Appreciation Centre has room for several hundred people, a rough stage and a few tables and chairs. Nothing has been organised for the evening so it was quite enjoyable. A sign reading “Welcome back Declan and Colleen” went in vaini—'he and his good wife had decided to catch up on some booze and some sleep. He hadn’t come back for the Festival, he just ran out of money in Ireland. Saturday morning I arrived at Sydney University in time for the first workshops at 9.45. With foresight known only to organisers, three workshops were schemed to begin at the same time. My dilemma was solved when the information desk told me that the two I

wanted to go to - Blues influence on Rock Music and 17th Century Music and Instruments - had been called off because the people running them hadn’t turned up. I sought the sanctuary of a workshop on Australian Bawdy H um or. The workshop was conducted in a refreshingly haphazard sort of way by a bloke called Brad Tate from Newcastle. Mr Tate has dedicated his life to collecting dirty songs and poems, lewd jokes, sexual and racial folklore. Folkies, you see, are a strange lot. Having assured us that the dog did not sit on, but shat in, the tucker box nine miles from Gundagai, Tate went on to explore his main theme which was that racism in Australia finds its easiest expression in sexual terms. The “black pox” or “jack in the box” in rhyming slang which is supposed to cause genitals to rot, blindness and insanity he attributed to European diseases — not the racial qualities of local Gins. However, he got slightly indignant at suggestions about the homosexual implications in the mateship

bronzed Anzac. “That is only good clean fun,” he said, “besides, bushmen got very lonely without women in the outback.” 1 left when he began to eulogise army and rugby songs. 1 The Carslaw lecture theatre had filled to the roof by the time a shy and deadpan Bill Moynihan had begun his rave on the bluegrass idiom. His theme was the mass media’s affect on the development and propagation of bluegrass. “Are you aSagittarian?” said the man in the hay beside me as Moynihan put on another tape of early hillbilly recordings. The workshop started at 1.30 and by 2.30 I was dying for a drink. I like bluegrass but I hadn’t come to the folk festival just to sit in a university lecture theatre and hear tape recordings. Outside a puppet theatre was doing the Life of Henry Lawson to the accompani­ ment of a Jug Band. I found Affley and we talked some blokes, who had just arrived from Melbourne, into driving us to the pub. Affley told the officials that he was going to the pub to bring all the Irish musicians back. Hfe was supposed to be giving an Irish workshop at 3.30 and promised to have them all back by then. For some strange reason they believed him.

By five o’clock we were Tommy D o y le ’s Wentworth Park Hotel in back at the pub. Workshops Harris Street, Ultimo, was were supposed to go for two where the real Port Jackson hours; this one adjourned by Folk Festival was really at. A ■mutual consent of the drab working-class pub in a musicians and the audience. drab working-class suburb it The old drunk who staggered was where the beer gut met in off Harris Street and sat at our table looked me in the the beard. Music, song and bodies oozed out of its tiny eye and said: “ I’m an confines. The beer was good I alcoholic”. He was Polish and the setting superb. “The but he cried at the Irish music. best musicians in the We got lost on the way country are in the back bar,” one beard was telling a beer to the first concert at the Elizabethan Theatre in gut. “ I’ve got ears,” replied “ 8.00 pm the beer gut scornfully. We N ew tow n. SHARP”. The theatre is a sang and drank; sung and truly remarkable building in drunk. By 4 o’clock Danny the grand old style: owned Watson had arrived to talk us out of it. Resentfully we by the Elizabethan Theatre Trust it has three seating eventually returned to the levels each with four private university. boxes. Not the sort of thing What I can remember of you would expect to find in th a t w orkshop was Newtown and certainly not reasonably good but our the sort of thing you would hearts and minds were still in expect to attend a folk Harris Street. concert in. “Whatever “ We’re going to happened to woolsheds?” demonstrate some Irish set ' asked my mate, and just dances,” said one habitual then Bill Peach of television organiser, “this one’s called fame came striding onto the The Walls of Limerick.” stage. The folk scene is Affley, one eye on the clock getting very trendy. and the other peering over It Wasn’t a particularly Jacko Ke van’s piano good concert but “White accordian says>: “Ah, yes, N elly’’ a so rt of the old Wallsa” . tra d itio n a l/c o n temporary

group brought the house down. “No,” said the organisers, “there will be no encores.” A committeeman had decided and he was the “responsible person present at all times.” After the concert it was back to the Arts Appreciation Centre in Day Street for the party. Unorganised it went all night and was excellent

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Sunday there was no petrol, no beer and hence for me, no workshops. It was all that I could manage to go back on Monday morning and hear the Jug Band workshop. Andy George, who ran it, didn’t have a clue how he was going to fill in two hours and apologised profusely because there were no active jug bands left in Sydney. Volunteers were called for and the East Neasden Spasm Band and another called “Lucy Field” crawled out of the \yoodwork. They jammed for more than two hours and turned on a bloody good show. There was a songwriting competition thaT day-. . . I hung it up till Easter, Melbourne’s Port Phillip Folk Festival.

Some o f the best music was far from the lecture rooms — at Doyle's Wentworth Park Hotel.

13. Mon-Sat. 8.30, Sun. 7.30. Prices: Sun-Fri. $7.50, Sat. $8.50. Godspell by John Michael Tebelack, dir Sammy Bayes, Richbrooke Theatre, 150 Elizabeth St, Sydney, 61-9880. Mon to Thurs 8.30. Fri, Sat 5.40 and 8.40. Prices: Mon to Sat even. $3.50 and $4.50, Fri and Sat mats $2.80 and $3.80. Concessions: Vz price, to children and pensioners to mats. Goldilocks And The Four Bears (R Certificate) by Robyn Moase dir. Hayes Gordon. Ensemble Theatre, 78 McDougall St, Milsons Point. 9298877. Opens Feb. 15. Mon-Sat 8, Sat. matinee 5. Prices: Mon-Thurs and Sat. matinee $2.75, $2.25. Fri, Sat. evens. $3 and $2.50. Concessions: students Mon, Tues $1, remainder reduced 50c. The House of Blue Leaves by John Guare, dir David G oddard, Independent Theatre, 271 Miller St, North Sydney, 929-7377. Wed to Sat at 8.15. Prices: $3, $2, $1. Sat $3 and $2. C oncessions: Students $1.50, $1. v How The Other Half Loves by Alan Ayckbourn dir. Robin Midgley. Starring Robert Morley. Elizabeth T h eatre, Wilsons St, Newtown. 517471. Opens Feb. 21. Mon-Sat. 8.30 Mats, on Wed. & Sat. Prices: Mats. $ 4 .20, $3.20, $2.20, evenings $4.80, $3.80, $2.80. Concessions: children and pensioners half price at mats. Jesus Christ Superstar by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, dir Jim Sharman, Capital Theatre, 13 Cambell St, Haymarket, 212-3677. Mon-Sat at 8.30, Fri and Sat mats 6 p.m. Prices: $5.20, $4.20 and $3.20. Concess­ ions: Party bookings. Les Girls, All male revue. Cnr Roslyn St and Darling­ hurst Rd, Kings Cross, 35-6630. Two shows nightly, Mon-Thurs. Three shows Fri and Sat. Prices: Mon-Thurs,

$3; Fri and Sat $3.50. M e m o rie s , P o tp o u rri Surprise Killara Coffee T h eatre, 680 Pacific Highway, Killara 498-7552. Thurs-Sat at 8.30 Prices: $ 3 .4 0 , S at $3.80. Concessions: children and students. Mother Goose by The Young People’s Theatre. A.M.P. Theatre, AMP Building Circular Quay. 382992. Every Sat. at 2.15.- Prices $1.50 adults, $1 children. No, No, Nanette dir. Freddie Carpenter starring Yvonne de Carlo. Regent Theatre, 487 George St, Sydney. 2622487. Opens Feb. 24. Mon-Sat. at 8.15. Sat & Wed. mats. 2 pm. Prices: evenings $5.20, $4.20, $3.20, mats. $4.40, $3.40, $2.40. Concessions: children and pensioners half price at mats. President Wilson in Paris by Ron Blair, dir John Bell. Nimrod Street Theatre, 10 Nimrod St, Darlinghurst 31-3754. Tues-Sat 8.30, Sun 7.30. Prices: Tu'es-Thurs $2, Fri-Sun $2.50. Concessions: to a c to rs, studenits, m em bers, Tues-Thurs: $1.50, Sun $1.75. Ron Fraser Says Some of My Best Friends Aren’t dir James Fishburn. MacLeay Theatre,’ 81 MacLeay St, Potts Point 35-0433. MonSat 8.30 (dinner at 6). Price: $7 with dinner. Savitic and iThe Bear by Holst and William Walton respectively, dir. Robert* Guillemot. Young Opera at Cell B lock Theatre, Darlinghurst on Feb. 16, 17 & 18. Tickets from Mitchells and D.J’s. Prices: $3.50 & $3. The Spring Heeled Terror of Stepney Green by and dir Stanley Walsh, Music Hall Restaurant, 156 Military Rd, Neutral Bay, 909-8222. Mon-Sat 8.30 4 dinner from 6 Mon-Fri, $2.70; Sat $3.20 (not including food and drink. A Stretch Of The Imagination written and dir. by Jack Hibberd. Australian Theatre, cnr. Lennox and Probert Sts, Newtown.

51-3841. Mon-Sat 8 p.m. Prices: $3.50, $2.50. Concessions: for students, members, nurses. 3’s Company dir. William Orr. Music Loft, 7 The Corso, Manly 9776585. Open at 6, dinner at 7, show time 8.40. Price $7. The Tinderbox by Nicholas Stuart Grey dir. Noelann G andon. In d ep e n d en t Theatre, 271 Miller St, North Sydney 929-7377. Children’s play every Sat. at 2.00 pm.

MOVES Currently Showing Ascot, 246 Pitt. Never Give An Inch —known in thè rest of the world as Sometimes A Great Notion. Avalon, 39 Barrenjoey Rd, Avalon. Sunday • Bloody Sunday until Feb. 15. Barclay, 681 George. A Clockwork Orange. Century, 586 George. Young Winston. Classic, 109 Pittwater Rd, Collaroy. Catch 22 and The Adventurers until Feb. 15. Play Misty For Me and Beguiled Feb. 16-23. Classic, 9 Spit Rd, Mosman. The Decameron. Supper shows at 11.15 p.m. — Feb. 10, In Cold Blood, Feb. 17, Wild Angels. Dendy, 360 Pacific Highway, Crows Nest. Lizard In A Woman’s Skin and The Shadow Within. Midnight Frid. 16 - One Armed Swordsman. They are starting a Sunday mat. series at 2.30 p.m. (the same film will be shown the following Friday midnight each time). Coming, censors willing for these sessions is The Chinese Boxor and lots more Chinese films. Embassy, 79 Castlereagh. The Mechanic closes Feb. 15 then Endless Night. F o ru m , 749 George. Bedknobs And Broomsticks. Gala, 236 Pitt. Portnoy’s Complaint. Liberty, 232 Pitt. They Only Kill Their Masters. Lyceum, 210 Pitt. What’s Up Doc?

Mayfair, 73 Castlereagh. Cabaret. Metro, 530 Oxford St, Bondi Jncn. They Only Kill Their Masters. Metro, 28 Orwell St, Kings Cross. Adventures Of Barry McKenzie. Metro, 42 North Steyne, Manly. The Sunshine Sea. New Arts, 166 Glebe Pt. Rd., Glebe. The Night Com ers and C arnal Knowledge until Feb 14. Feb 15-21 Three different programs of boxing films. Opening Feb. 22, Gimme Shelter. On Feb 11 at 4.30 p.m. The complete wSVi hrs) Russian War and Peace. Orpheum, 386 Military Rd, Cremorne. Play Misty For Me and Tell Em Willie Boy Is Here. Paramount, 525 George. The Godfather. Paris, 205 Liverpool Man Of La Mancha. Penthouse, 85 DarlinghurstRd, Kings Cross. The Reluctant Nudist. Plaza, 600 George. A Fistful Of Dynamite closes Feb. 15. Then Poseidon Adventure. Rapallo, 527 George. The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean. Regent, 487 George. Trinity Is Still My Name. Ritz, The Spot, Randwick. Citizen Kane and I Never Sang For My Father. Roma, 628 George. Song Of A Red Ruby. Roselands, Shopping Centre, Roselands. Ryan’s Daughter, to be followed by Fiddler On The Roof. State, 49 Market. Carry' On Matrons. -State Theatrette, 49 Market. A’u Pair Girls. »jown, 303 Pitt. Pope Joan. Village Twin, 377 New South Head Rd, Double Bay,. Cinema 1, Deliverance, Cinema 2, The Decameron. 11.15 p.m. shows - Feb. 10 Count Yorga, Vampire and Dunwich Horrors; Feb. 16, Hell In The Pacific; Feb. 23, Last Summer. Further horror shows on the Feb.. 17 & 24. Winter Garden, New South Head ; Road, Rose Bay. Ryan’s Daughter finishing soon to be followed by Harold And Maude.

I've got ears...

Description would destroy the surprise. Suffice it to say that it is an odyssey of sorts. Bonython Gallery, 52 Watters Gallery, 109 Riley Victoria St, Paddington. St., Darlinghurst. Fences To Climb by Tim Bums opened ] Four exhibitions all on at Feb. 6 and will rim till the j once and closing on Feb. 20. 24th. Three paddocks of j Mona Hessing’s massive woven fibres loll about in polyurethane ‘ honeycomb various stages of disarray. foam are there to be climbed Some like landscapes, some over. 1 like phalluses there’s a Central St. Gallery, 1 Central definite emphasis on the St. Two projects by Ken organic. In contrast to Marea Searle closes Feb. 13.

Galleries

Gazzard’s clay. Fragile white pods from an outer space egg factory stand broken and hurt. Also on display is Emanuel R a f t ’s mathematical jewelry and Richard Harris’s cooly classic photographs. A master of grey tones, obsessed by symmetry and street lights, Harris’s subdued almost unhuman forms are framed in remarkable static energy.

By the DMhe Grace o f God one finds a genuine Spiritual Master-And by His Divine Grace one can find God. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Hare Krishna Movement will deliver His sublim e discourses on 'Bhagavad Gita As It Is-th e Eternal Philosophy o f India.

Sydney Town Hall — Feb. 12 — 7.30 pm. Paddo Town Hal) — Feb. 16 — 7.30 pm. For further information contact Hare Krishna Centre, 83 Hereford St.; Glebe.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare. Hare Rama Hare Ram a Ram a Ram a Hare Hare

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