BRITISH UBRAHY OF POLHICAL J tCOHOMlC SOEHCt k)S'5 18JU 1990 NEWSPAPER OF THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS STUDENTS' UNION Price 6d. No. 105 January 28, 1971 A---corrupt and incompetent gang Tlic c\ents that occurred during the last few days of the Michaelmus Term, cuhninating with the successful motion of censure against the President of the Union and the mass resignation of Council, provided one of the more entertaining spectacles of the season. It also took a special sitting of the Constitutional Committee to clarify at least some of the many constitutional problems that cropped up. At the Union Meeting on Friday, 11th December the Welfare V^P. proposed a council motion "Union censures the President on the grounds of threatening to dismiss the bar assistant and shop assistant if they went on strike on 8th December, 1970". Since President and Council were automatically excluded from the chair, it was thrown open to a Note which was won by Neil Lockwood. Unfortunately, Lockwood's evident impartiality and goodwill could not compensate for his ignorance of procedure and the constitution, which added considerable confusion to the debate. Trevor .Tones proposed the censure motion in a frequently violent speech which dragged on for well over fifteen minutes. He was followed by Patrick Breslin speaking against the motion, and Chris Baslinton speaking for. Various accusations, mostly unsubstantiated, were hurled around, and the principle accusation was rapidly swami)ed by attacks on Gareth Pryce's administration in general. At this point Prycc himself took the stand and gave a concisc answer to the accusations, basing himself principally on a statement distributed to Union at the beginning of the meeting, and asked for the question to be put immediately. Rex Macey, in a surprise move, now proposed the following amendment to the motion: "and in view of the contempt shown by Union Council for the members of this Union, Union calls upon the whole corrupt and incompetent gang to resign."; this was passed by Union after a short debate by 83 votes to 53. Angela Rumble, the Shop Assistant and principal witness for the prosecution, was asked to address Union in an attempt to clarify the case, but appeared to do her ease more harm than anything else, as she admitted that Pryce had "insinuated" rather than actually threatened her dis-mi.ssal, and that there may have been a question of "reconsidering her contract but from a different viewpoint." This just about concluded the formal presentation of evidence, and Angela was followed by Clive Attcn-borough speaking for the amended motion and MichacI Goddfrcy against. Goddfrey gave a reasonable and balanced speech, pointing out that the accusations against the President could hardly be said to have been proved "beyond all reasonable doubt", and that in view of the fact that the charge was a serious one involving abuse of power, and that evidence was unforth- coming or contradictory. Union could hardly be expected to take such a grave step as to pass a censure motion. After a procedural motion to prolong debate had been defeated and various points of order were rejected by the chair, the motion was put to a vote with the following results: For 125, Against 114, Abstaining 34. The Chairman declared the motion carried and refused a recount; the President advised Council that should it wish to resign by resolution it would have to do so at a Council Meeting. and summoned an Extraordinary Council Meeting for the first Tuesday of the spring term. The meeting came to an anticlimactic end as a motion supporting the Gay Liberation Front was unopposed by Union. Preposterous Immetliately the Union Meeting was dissolved, Andrew Hiekley, the Deputy President (who together with other members of Council had declared his intention of resigning, directly after the censure motion was passed), called a Council meeting. This was attended briefly by the President, who stayed just long enough to declare the meeting unconstitutional, and the chair was taken by Hickley. After considerable wrangling, a motion on whether or not Council should resign by resolution was carried by seven votes to one. Complete chaos now settled in since there was considerable doubt as to the lesalitv of most of the proposals let alone of the meeting it.self. The Senior Treasurer, Mike Tuckett, refused to resign by resolution, leaving shortly thereafter, and Council, by virtue of Section 1, para. 6 of the constitution, proceeded to appoint the following acting oHlcers: David Kenvyn, acting Senior Treasurer; Stan Ruszczynski, acting Gen. Sec.; and Ian Cam-lett, acting Deputy President. Hickley, the now late D.P., then proposed that since the President "was deemed by Council to have resigned", he should be replaced by the acting DP., which preposterous suggestion was adopted by Council. As the Falstaffian Camlett rushed out to ensure that his name would be placed on the roll of presidents. Council considered dates for the election of a new Council and the meeting was clo.sed. An Extraordinary Council ¦Meeting was held on Monday the 14th. Gareth Pryce having returned from exile, he took the chair of this meeting despite the somewhat rickety decision of the previous Council meeting, and Tuckett was back as acting Senior Treasurer. Recriminations and confusion interspersed by short, icy silences resulted in little but a decision to change the dates of the coming elections, and the entire performance of the last few days v/as thrown at the Constitutional Committee for clarification. In the first few da\'s of the spring term, the Constitutional Committee finally met to consider a complaint by Phil Roys in connection with the December 11th Council Meeting chaired by Hicklcy; the Committee's findings were (a) that the meeting itself was constitutional as long as was termed an ordinary rather than an extraordinary meeting (b) that Council was invalid in deeming the President and Senior Treasurer out of oflicc, and (c) that Stan Ruszczynski's appointment as acting Gen. Sec. was valid upon condition he resigned from the Constitutional Committee. Constitutional sophistry apart, it is obvious that these events raise serious doubts, at the verv least, as to the competence of the present Council. Incompetent There is something inherently dubious about an elected group meant to represent this Union devoting the majority of their time to incestuous wrangling and personal vendettas; the ultimate loser will invariably be the student body. There would .seem to be many rea-.sons for the present state of affairs: the concentration of "political" power in the hands of a narrow clique, a situation encouraged by a traditionally apathetic Union; a Council apparently more concerned with abstract political issues and in- (Continued on page 2) i rmmj m Caradon and UN — passionate commitment A scathing attack was made on the present government and the critics of the United Nations by Lord Caradon at LSE a fortnight ago. Caradon began with a declaration of his faith in the United Nations as an institution: "Don't knock the institution, the machinery is NUMBERS Owing to a printing error there was no issue number 103 of Beaver. Would archivists please make notes in their files to this efTect. Next Issue The Industrial Relations Bill. Professor Griffith on Academic freedom. perfect enough, it's the people who work within it who are at fault". Caradon continued his talk along these lines for the next hour. It ended with a spectacular political decapitation — the victim being our great internationalist premier, Mr. Heath. Caradon spoke of the UN under four headings, as an instrument of peace, an instrument of economic development, a centre of international diplomacy and a forum of World Opinion. As an instrument for peacc, Caradon regarded the institution as the most elTec-live force so far, in obtaining not only the cessation of hostilities between opposing countries, but also the more vital resolution of conflict along permanently acceptable lines. This sort of work involves activity, on the part of people like Caradon, of the most nnmdane sort and yet, it is precisely the maimer in which he looks for a resolution to international problems that puts him squarely within that rare breed of politicians — idealists with their feet firmly on the ground. As a forum for World Opinion the UN provides the representatives with an opportunity to listen to the innumerable problems and views of the members. Caradon's personal commitment lies in the direction of promoting international development of a multilateral character. The fact that over 20 per cent, of the popula- tion on the facc of the earth still own 80 per cent of the wealth is to him an intolerable injustice. I Jnked to this Caradon saw racial discrimination as the most serious moral problem we face today. He considered selling arms to South Africa was "nothing short of providing a certificate of respectability for apartheid — perhaps the most ignominious system of injustice ever erectal into a system of government — and a serious threat to the future of the Commonwealth". Britain's role as a middle power called for a politics of moral persuasion, not the indulgence in worthless war games the present government seemed too inclined to follow. Caradon's attack left no one in doubt as to his own position. Page 2 BEAVER January 28 ~^71 Elitist and undemocratic One battle in the war BEAVER EDITOR: Elisabeth Faulkner SUB-EDITORS; Norman Bergel, Barry Buzan, Martha Greenyer. I'OLinCAL CORRESPONDENT: John Stathatos. FEATURES: Joseph Sydenor, John Mair, John Andrews, David Kenvyn, Patrick Breslin, Nick Spurrier, Graham Dowell. AKTS: Diana VUlieis, Norman Bergel, Barry Buzan, P. Corfield Godfrey, Clive Attenborough. BUSINESS MANAGER: Martha Greenyer. SALEJS MANAGER: John Andrews. ADVERTISING AGENTS: JEP and Associates, 107/111 Fleet Street EC4. BEAVER ADDRESS: LSE Students' Union, Clare Market, London WC2 2AE. Tel. 01-405 4872. PRINTER: F. Bailey & Son Limited, Dursley, Glos. It was too much, 1 suppose, to expect a fair decision from the tribunal hearing Rudi Dutschke's appeal against Maudling's deportation order. A Kangaroo court if there ever was one, Michael Foot hit the nail on the head when he said the whole case had been concocted. The immigration appeals machinery set up by the labour government under the 1970 Aliens Order consisted of two different forms of procedure depending on whether "security" was deemed to be involved. The first was the ordinary appeals procedure which was completely out of the hands of the Home Secretary, .but it was the second, supposed only to be applied in matters of top security, under which Dutschke was tried. By this the final decision was left to Maudling who could present unilateral unchallengeable evidence based on a dossier cooked up by security men. Certain sessions of the hearing could be held in secret — therefore Dutschke did not know the nature of the charges against him. And what exactly were these conclusions. Firstly, that Dutschke's is not and Since L.S.E. first emerged from the primeval soup of decadent bourgeois socialism, its inmates have been attempting their ritual self-destruction by attempting to desecrate that inner sanctum of LSE life, the students' union complex. There have always been those who, with the glint of Nirvana in their eyes have spent their few brief years in this Holy of Holies trying to destroy what to them was, and is, a diseased, tainted body. For years men and women have searched for the Holy Grail, there have been new constitutions. Socsoc councils, all have failed to attain those Elysian fields. However, last term the whole situation was transformed with the collapse of the Union monolith. Without any help from the outside. council through its own devious machinations collapsed into the infernal regions of personal dispute haunted by terrible pigwid-geons, genies, flibbertigibbets and the bad fairy. But how can those straight thinking seraphs of the LSE library be sure this is not a trick. Could this be just another effort by the angels of the bottomless pit to avoid justice at the hands of the "Florrie's Mafia," never has been, but may become a danger to "security". But if you think this logic is tenuous — the tribunal also stated that by discussing politics with various people and groups such as IS. he had broken the promise given to Jim Callaghan not to take part in any political activities. And here we come to the heart of the matter. Various commentators have complained of the injustice of this case as if it were an isolated incident — although worrying in the precedent it could be setting. In reality it is only a part of the "silent revolution" Mr. Heath initiated on June 19th last year. It has to be seen in the context of the Industrial Relations Bill, the cuts in the social service, the new Immigration Bill and the tribunal now sitting to adjudicate on the electricians' pay claim. Dutschke is the victim of obscurantist Tory ideology because he is a foreigner, a student and a (revolutionary) socialist. To the government and their small-minded supporters he is small-fry; tomorrow their target will the trade unions, and the under-privileged sections of our society. Elizabeth Faulkner those harpies of the extension. Can it be this whole issue is a mere ruse to avoid the "FM" from taking advantage of the "CC" whilst they are locked in struggle witli the diabolic Mephistophcles. No longer is there is bi-polar structure on the first floor; there remains only total confusion. Having dispatched the Prince of Darkness to his perpetual martyrdom, Brutus and his allies then pulled themselves and the devil incarnate into the Styx of resignation. Anyone now wishing to meet a particular VP can choose between a whole range, depending on how many council meetings he attended. There are Acting VP's. ex-VP's, spectral VP's, not to mention those who reckon they ought to be the next elected. Meanwhile the marionettes have had a field day manoeuvring into a position from which they can make a lunge for the mantle of true righteousness. Destiny demands its Lucifer. Someone must become an automaton, inevitably and inexorably, compelled to walk the path of circumstance. John D. K. Andrews Continued from page 1 dividual infights; and a President who. irrespective of the rights or wrongs of his position, seems totally incapable of co-operating with his fellow council members and has aroused considerable antagonism among the people he is presumed to be working with. As far as the actual charges brought against Pryce are concerned, it is impossible to determine the truth from the outside; the charges were finally narrow^ down to the one concerning Angela Rumble, and the relevant scene had no witnessess other than the protagonists. The only significant. though ambiguous, quote Anegal could give the positive answer to her ques-Union Meeting was Pryce's tion "So this is a sacking matter, is it?", which was vehemently denied by Pryce. So someb^y is dangerously i close to being branded a liar, and I do not believe Union should be asked to undertake this, one way or another, in the face of insufficient evidence. The impartial attitude, incidentally. POEMS WANTED for publication £1,000 in cash prizes for best poems published. Small subscription involved. Send poems and s.a.e. for free editorial opinion and prize details :- Cathay Books (AH), 1 Euston Road, London, N.W.I. which should have been observed in a case of this delicacy, was totally shattered by the hysterical delivery of the motion proposer, Trevor Jones. All in all. Union was presented with an incompetent three - ring circus which lacked even dramatic merit, and a mediocre performance on the part of all its elected so-called "officers"; even at this late date, it is impossible to estimate the repercussions on the coming elections — not to mention the fact that part of the fallout might render these elections unconstitutional in retrospect anyway. Union, however, has little to feel smug about. It is a truism that we got the sort of government that we deserve, and Union can hardly complain about a Council which, licensed by universal apathy, flagrantly disregards their interests. Perhaps it is time for the student body to increase its commitment to Union, in order to be able to wrest some benefits from the present self-appointed establishment. LSE Music Society LUNCH TIME CONCERT Royal Academy of Music (Chamber Ensemble) Founders Room: Wednesday from 1.30 to 2.30 p.m. Dear Editor. The article "The Failure of Militancy" by Munch-Peterson in the last issue of "Beaver" is more interesting in its implicit assumptions than in what it actually says. His underlying theme is that militancy may be alright for foreigners but England has peaceful, democratic traditions" which make it alien to us. If that is not chauvinistic self-satisfaction (as well as a selective reading of history) I don't know what is. He also maintains that "the university system in England is far more open than on the Continent", while in fact a smaller proportion of the population. 1 continue in further education than almost anywhere in Europe. British education is as elitist and class-biased as any, not that that would concern a comfortable social democrat like Munch-Peter-son. We should look beyond the last few years to the failure of reformism to achieve anything like a democratic education system over the last century. Dear Madam. In the last couple of weeks of the Christmas term there were great complications with the programme of the film society (which is a euphemism for the fact that about half the films were cancelled). The film society rents films from the various houses in London which rent out 16MM films to student film societies. There are about 6 large film houses of which Rank, Warner, and Film Distributors are the largest. Of the 30 or so films which we had scheduled, some 20 come from these three houses. When contract from these companies they take no engagements towards us. If the film does not show up on the play date that is simply tough luck for us. We cannot penalize them in any way. Furthermore if the film shows up on the play date then they can charge us. And unless we can prove that the film did not arrive on the play date, they can try to charge us. Now it so happens that after we had entered into all our contracts (which normally is finished some time in July of the year in which the programme starts in October) Rank bought out the Warner distributing agency. And the combined Rank-Warner distribution agency changed locations. While moving they lost all of their records. Which means they have no record of where what films arc He is trying to capitalisc on the frustration which often follows the first wave of militancy and get us ail back to the Fabian machinations of "negotiations and gradualism", which threaten nothing and will change nothing. He wants us to abandon our opposition to an elitist and undemocratic system in exchange for a fraudulent "participation" in something in which we disagree. This then is the "theory" of social demo-ci'acy, the practice of which was shown when Gareth Pryce threatened some of the union staff with the sack for coming out on December 8th. What we should look for now is not capitulation, and the abandonment of militancy, but a more thoughtful renewal of militancy on a wider basis linked up with the struggle against the Conservative government and all it represents throughout the rest of society. Yours faithfully, John Bradbrook, (Socialist Society) supposed to go. For every single film that I have booked from them I needs write them a letter giving details. They then reply saying they have understood. And usually about one film out of four shows up. Every film that has not shown up has been either a Rank or a Warner film. When I became aware of this problem 1 tried to solve it, but by now most of the movies we are interested in booked well into 1971 or even 1972. Furthermore to obtain all moves I wanted I would have to cancel all rank war-ner films. This situation has put the film society in a quandary, particularly about postering. How do we poster a film which may not show up? Nowadays our procedure is to simply poster a film when it actually arrives. And furthermore we have had the bulk of our rank war-ner films. Anyone who is desirous of actually going to Brentwood (Middlesex) and arguing in person with Rank, or in running a courier to pick up films, could always offer to join the comitte of the film soceity. En finale. I would like to fecommend two films now on the London scene; "Les choses de la vie" (incredible acting from Michel Piccoli). and Ken Russell's (the man who did that documentary on Richard Strauss for Omnibus) film about Tchaikovski. ALEX DUFFY JEWELLERY AND WATCHES 20%-25% DISCOUNT to all NUS members and University Staff DIAMOND ENGAGEMENT RINGS Gold—Wedding and Signet Kings. Gold and Silver—Cigarette, Cases, Powder Boxes, Bracelets, Necklaces, Charms, Broaches, Eardips, Linlu. Silver and E.P.N.S. Tea-sets, etc. 10%-20% DISCOUNT to all NUS members and University Staff on all Branded Goods—All Swiss Watches, Clocks, Cutlery, Pens, Lighters, etc., and on all Second-hand Jewellery. Remodelling and rep^s to all jewellery and repairs to watches GEORGES & CO. of Hatton Garden (Entrance in Greville Street only) 88/90 HATTON GARDEN, E.C.I Showroom Open Weekdays 9-~6, Saturday 9—12 Special attention to orders by post or 'phone — 01-405 0700/6431 Riders of the Apocalypse LETTERS Du ffy no Aims JaJi'-Al-y 28, 1971 BEAVER Page 3 OZ. . . IT. . .OZ. . . IT. . .OZ. . . IT. . .OZ. . . IT. . .OZ. . . IT. . .OZ. . . IT. . . " Whose bag is that ? Yours ? Right, I'll have it!" The govemiuent's rising repression of the underground press brought us a step closer to Total Mind Control on Friday, December 18. At the OZ office on Princedale Road, Detective Inspector Frederick Luff, armed with a warrant under the Obscene Publication Act, took charge of all the files, including director's personal files and filing cabinet, as well as at least 4,000 copies of the last four issues of OZ, the subscription list (New Scotland Yard now have three copies of this in their possession), and Jim Anderson's (one of OZ's editors) overnight bag ("I need something to put these files in... Whose bag is that— Yours? Right, I'll have it!") Earlier, Luff, accompanied by ten policemen and two dogs (presumably train- ed in sniffing out obscenity), and again using a warrant under the OPA, had visited Richard Neville's (another editor) private flat and confiscated, among other items, a copy of Portnoy's Complaint and a tape recorder which was recording the event. During the search the dogs discovered some obscene smelling substance, and Richard and Louise Fer-rier were arrested and taken to Notting Dale police station, where Luff opposed bail for Neville, although it was only his first offence under the Dangerous Drugs Act. Jim Anderson's flat was also raided by Luff and copies of OZ were confiscated, together with artwork and articles for the next issue. Justice Melford Stevenson denied bail in the magistrates court the next day, but Censorshit and You unfortunately for the forces of Law and Order, he made the blunder of refusing even to hear the defence's application for bail. Richard's lawyer was able to contact a judge in chambers on Sunday, and he was released late Sunday night after being granted bail. Media censorship This outrage against freedom of the press is only the latest in the very long history of harassment and censorship in England, and it has not been limited to the underground media. For an excellent expose of censorshit of BBC TV and radio, see IT/94. For an instant lesson in mass-media newspaper censorshit, pick up any copy of most English dailies: their content (i.e. what is reported, what is not) is censorshit no more tolerable than the less subtle mind-control operated by the government under the OPA. Why wasn't the machine-gunning of the Spanish Embassy in London reported along with other worldwide protests against the Spanish 'trial' of revolutionary Basques? Why weren't a number of firebombings of Barclays Banks in protest against British investment in fascist racist South Africa reported until well after they happened? On a different level, anyone who has seen reports of an event in which he/she personally participated (such as the Houghton AGAR The Action Committee against Racialism was formed at the beginning of last term as a successor to, and modelled on, the Stop the Seventies Tour Campaign. However, it was hoped originally that it would be more broadly based, and would set out to condemn and, if possible take action against, all manifestations of racialism. It has become perhaps inevitably, to concentrate on attacking the Apartheid policy of South Africa. The LSE ACAR last term had a number of meetings, some of which were well attended but none of which resounded with enthusiasm. The South African issue died over the summer holidays. It will undoutcdly be resurrected when and if Mr. Heath decides to sell arms to the South African regime, but ACAR needs people to help and organise now. Houghton Street Epilogue Injustice in action A careers article in the "Observer" a few weeks ago stated that Unilever were coming to the School to recruit on Wednesday 20th January. ACAR planned to take action against the team coming. However Nick Spurrier rang up Unilever and was told that it was all a misunderstanding — they had never intended coming anyway. Perhaps you can draw your conclusions. Meetings of ACAR are held every Wednesday in S/IOIA at 1 p.m. Nick Spurrier See This ! The best 8 bobs worth in London at the moment is the 'Festival of the Fools', a satirical review put on by the Critics group. The Festival was scripted mostly by Euen McColl and is excellently performed by members of various London folk music clubs. They review everything from British and American politics to Women's Libera- tion and Underwear with devastating effectiveness. The audience was left torn between laughter and anger, and went out quite staggered by its experience. It's playing at the new Merlin's Inn on Margery St., WCl Thursday through Sunday evenings. Thursdays and Sundays at 7.30 should assure you a seat. MEN ONLY (SORRV CIRISS Super Summer Vac. Job as Tour Leader, taking U.S. Student Groups on a Grand European Tour ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS :-4c TO BE MALE ± WITH EXTENSIVE TRAVEL EXPERIENCE * WITH LANGUAGES Interested ? For more details apply immediately to JIM HERLIHY Via Pigeon Hole, LS.E. Case no. 1. Defendant: Jack Krelle. Charges: Threatening behaviour that might have caused a breach of the peace, and obstructing a Police Officer in the course of his duty. P.c. 537 took the stand. He stated that on the day we were blocking Houghton street Jack attempted to prevent the BBC getting a film of the demo by running forward and grabbing at the nozzle of the camera. 537 warned him to desist, but Jack thrust him aside and made repeated attempts to grab the camera. 537 cautioned and arrested him. (At this point the magistrate said something about "treason" presumably connected with Jack's alleged remark "I don't want them taking photographs here".) 537 continued by saying that Jack resisted arrest violently. He retracted nothing under cross-examination. P.c. 595 now took the stand and confirmed 537's evidence, stating "He seemed to be going at it (the camera) with great gusto". But he couldn't make up his mind as to which part he was going for nor did his description of how he went for it tally with 537. He also stated that Jack pushed 537 several times when 537 said once. He did agree that Jack resisted arrest violently. Jack, Steve Culliford and Mandy Rose all stated that he made no attempt to grab the camera, but merely waved his hand(s) in front of it and that he made no resistance at all to his arrest. Sentence: Threatening behaviour: Charge dismissed. Obstructing a Police Offi- cer: Fined £4. Case no. 2. Defendant: Gary Howe. Charges: Unlawful assault, and Obstruction. P.c. 537 took the stand. He stated that as taking a prisoner (Jack) to the police van he felt a slight pressure on his neck for a short time. No physical harm was done to him. He did not see his assailant. P.c. 463 now took the stand. He said that as P.c. 537 was "Walking" a prisoner (please see the evidence in case no. 1) he saw Gary attempt to jump on 537's back and did grab him round the throat and waist whereupon 463 grabbed him and dragged him away for arrest. P.c. 595 was called to corroborate this statement, but he had vanished. Gary himself denied the charge completely. He said that he watched Jack's arrest to make sure that he was not manhandled but that was all. Sentence: Obstruction: charge dismissed. Unlawful assault: Fined £4. Question 1. Should not the burden of proof lie with the accuser(s)? 2. Why believe a policeman in preference to anyone else? 3. Why is it more important to exonerate the police than to maintain the innocence of the accused? Could someone find out the answers? PLEASE? D. Kenvyn Fourteen people have been reimbursed out of the union fines fund. Fines ranged from £1/5/0 to £5. The fund is now closed. Street demonstrations) realises that most papers resort to outright lies in presenting the 'truth' to the English public. Clearly, the mass-media practices constant, manipulative censorshit. In England as well as in other highly technological societies around the world, the control of communication systems is presently in the hands of a few authoritarian lunatics who misuse their awsome power to anesthetize the revolutionary potentialities of the individual, to stamp out free thought, and to crush any movement towards truly democratic control of life or environment. Underground struggle A history of the highlights in the struggle put up by OZ and IT, two of Britain's largest underground publications, against the government - directed crackdown on 'obscenity' shows what 'freedom of the press' really means (i.e. freedom to print the government's official version of reality, morality, truth, etc.) in a society which seems to be following along the path of Amerikan totalitarian 'democracy'. IT started in October, 1966; OZ a few months later. In March, 1967, IT offices were raided, files and papers seized. In April, 1969, IT was raided, and again files and papers were seized. In October, 1969, OZ was raided. In January, 1970, IT directors were sent for trial (more below) In July, 1970, OZ was busted; in October, OZ was sent for trial. The first IT trial (others can be expected) ended on Tuesday, 10 November. Knuller (Publishing, Printing and Promotions) Ltd. was fined £1500 and ordered to pay £500 costs after being found guilty of "conspiring to corrupt public morals and to outrage public decency"! Directors Dave Hall, Peter Stanshill and Graham Keen were each sentenced to 18 months in prison suspended for two years, and ordered to pay £200 each towards the costs. The trial started on Monday 2 November. For the prosecution, Mr. John Buzzard said that the Small Ads column in IT contained a section in which "males solicited men or boys to indulge in homosexual activities with the advertisers". Peter Stanshill said in evidence, "our intention was to provide in good faith a public service for a minority of individuals who had been continually discriminated against, harassed and victimised. As a newspaper with some sort of social conscience we thought we could make a positive and practical contribution to the welfare of homosexuals". Corrupt justice The editors of OZ have been charged under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 as amended (this was prior to the December 18 raid). If they are so convicted — ie, of "depraving and corrupting persons who are likely to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied" in OZ, they can be sent to gaol for three years The most frightening aspect of the actual charge is that the government has obviously adopted the technique of trying groups and individuals it finds 'subversive' on charges which sometimes assume guilt and which do not require the accused to have done anything: eg. "conspiring" in it's case; "depraving and corrupting persons who are likely to read ..." in OZ's or, in Rudi Dutschke's more publicised case, assuming a person to be guilty of being a danger to national security in the future!! These are 1984 charges being made in today's courts of 'justice', and anyone is liable to be prosecuted under them: the mass media are guilty of "depraving and corrupting persons who are likely to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied" if the government should ever decide they are — though interlocking British power elites make that possibility remote indeed. The above are only highlights in the history of police repression of IT and OZ; day to day repression is carried out in many other ways. The government and its police agents harass newsagents and the more visible street people who sell underground / radical publications. The result is obvious — look yourself to see how many newsagents carry IT, OZ, Freedom, Red Mole, Friends, etc. Unbelievable though it may be, even the innocuous, boring pages of Beaver were censored by the printers last term. And no matter how trivial it seemed to some, every single instance of censorship is an arbitrary, authoritarian control of our minds, our freedom to say or write our thoughts which we cannot let continue. Beaver should find a new printer; in the cases of IT and OZ, as in all cases of victimization, we should do everything possible in solidarity with those receiving the hardest blows in what is already a widespread national campaign of repression. OZ obscenity fund, 52 Princedale Road, W.ll. by J. SYDNOR Page 4 theatre Dram Soc's Antigone at LSE The temptation to compare an amateur production with the highly professional theatre surrounding us must be resisted. Nevertheless, L.S.E. Dram Soc start at a disadvantage, working as they do in a metropolis famed internationally for the excellent standard of its productions. London is also renowned for its variety and here lies the scope for the amateurs. The Pip Simmons Group, John Grilo and other groups all started as amateurs who made their names at The Sunday Times Student Drama Festival. If only L.S.E. could get a house writer and a more permanent producer and director they too could build up a reputation among up and coming amateur groups in this country. They have at their disposal students who are willing and critical guinea pigs for experimental work and Dram Soc should therefore break away from the classical form of play in order to sting people's senses beyond sight and sound. L.T. should be a popular proposition in this school. ANTIGONE produced and directed by Tom Lee in December was a fine demonstration of his, Robert Mac-donald-Watson, Margaret Usiskin and Ijaz Nabi's talent. They can act and Tom is a good director. Anouilh's play centres on the daughter of Oedipus' struggle to die for a cause she rigidly believes in even though explanation from Creon is reasonable and convincing. This is a tragedy not a melodrama and the production is thankfully kept in low key. Anouilh's script can carry the plot and the pathos; it only remains for the actors to be convincing. Margaret Usiskin as Antigone plays the vulnerable girl whose youthfulness belies her innate wisdom and whose dark beauty covers a strong determined personality. We may suspect her hidden strength when she meets her nurse and sister, but it is only fully displayed when she confronts Creon, her judge and inevitable execut i o n e r. Robert Macdonald - Watson has the difliculty of playing a man three times his own age; an impossible task helped by skilful make up and Robert's understanding of Creon's dilemma. His performance shows the authority of the king, his power and responsible position, but it lacked an old man's hopelessness and he feared to lay out a tired man's weakness. Ijaz Nabi played the jovial leader of the guard with conviction and humour. He obviously enjoyed the part and entertained fully with his mannerisms and foolish can- dour. Both he and Tony Lee arc natural actors. Tom Lee as the chorus provided the pentrating commentary throughout the play. There was nothing affected, no nervous agitation, but full command of the production and his audience attention. Through his presence on stage the play is assured of being a tragedy not a melodrama for he demanded a highly controlled performance not underplay from the actors and with one or two exceptions they responded. My main criticism is the stage itself; it is too small, shrouded in unnecessary curtains and overloaded with props. Next time I beg Dram Soc to produce in a more open space, say the Gym, where they could perform with a minimum of junk and hopefully encircled by a participating audience. P.S. Dram Soc are now rehearsing Edward Albee's "The Zoo Story" for the University of London Festival. Hamlet Cambridge Theatre The Nottingham Play House production of Hamlet is fine and strong. Hamlet's position as the key figure is emphasised and while Claudius, Gertrude and Opheha are main strands in the fabric of the tragedy, Hamlet's dominance is paramount. "Fair Elsinore" is banished from the mind, rather is the plot set in "this prison Denmark" for the startling bare metal boards against which the actors perform provide the atmosphere of restricted liberty and impending doom. There can be no room for frivolity in a production whose intention is to lay bare the play's objective truths. Alan Bates bccomes Hamlet. He seems to have totally immersed himself in the highly strung, brilliant and impulsive character. He does not rush though the soliloquies as if he knew them already and words must race as fast as thoughts, rather he ponders and gratefully elongates those unique passages of English Literature. Celia Johnson as Gertrude is a convincing mother who shows her admiration, nay doting affection, for her son. She is a distraught woman, confused by events beyond her comprehension. Angela Scoular's Ophelia is deeply moving. Her eyes pool and reflect her love and fear of Hamlet, while in her cowled madness they sting with their startling brilliance. Douglas Wilmer as Claudius, King of Denmark and Telliel Evans as Polonius give superb performances which all add to make this a remarkable production. Catch My Soul Roundhouse I wish it had caught my soul, instead I was bored and irritated by this pantomime version of Othello. This is a pity for the drama of Othello is relevant to our own multiracial society, particularly the U.S. and this musical could have portrayed racial tension, jealousy and anger in the same way as 'West Side Story' did. Instead, to avoid offending the American public producer Jack Good diversifies. He takes a kitsch version of Shakespeare, a cowboy's scene and an outdated spice of hippy culture, mixes them well in a Roundhouse shaker and pours out 'Catch My Soul.' To show you that the drama is a universal dilemma, as well as a hopeful international show-biz seller, a Moor is deported to New Mexico, palatially ensconced in a brothel, where lago can stride manfully around the saloon loaded with cartridge belts, is joined by hippies from Greenwich village. Des-demona from the latest London hairdresser and Bach and incense from a Roman Benediction service. What a raving hotch-potch! Again to prevent you taking this respectable subject too seriously, the producer souses his rock version of Shakespeare in ear splitting music, 1968 'Top of the Pops' styled dancing and highly skilled lighting. It might have entertained us four years ago, but since then we have been spoilt by the originality and musical vivacity of 'Hair'. Unlike that American production, this musical is decidedly unfit for export. The Duchess of Malfi Royal Court The reason for the English Stage's revival of a Jacobin play seems to be the imaginative use of language and vividness of metaphor; man is "a box of worm seed". rumour "a paper bullet." The plot holds the attention throughout the first half of the play and I would recommend that portion of devil-riddled play to all but the most pious. The sccond half of this lengthy tragedy is however tedious and overextended. The original language required clear utterance, but sadly this is not always so. De Bosola's lengthy speeches, acted by Victor Henry, arc clumsy and at times incomprehensible. Oliver Cotton as Ferdinand tended to rush through the script as if that was the best way to shorten (he three hours and twenty minutes. Fortunately Judy Parfitt as the Duchess of Malfi is a fine actress, whose confidence in her majestic role and the quiet deliberation over her changing fortunes raises her above the ability of lesser men. opera Turandot (Puccini) Royal Opera House This performance was especially distinguished by ' Birgit Nilsson's masterful and indeed icy Turandot. But the rest was frankly disappointing. James King as Calaf sang very well ki his acting was generally stiff, and was not helped by a production which seemed incapable of relating the singers to each other. The rest of the cast was good, but all of them had to struggle against the surprisingly insipid conducting of Charles Macker-ras, who managed to make the great sextet leading up to the striking of the gong at the end of Act One seera very tame. Some of Puccini's theatrical coups were destroyed by ineffectual ijroduc-lion. E/R Page S book review by L Sklair cinema Beyond the Ivory Tower by Sir Solly Zuckerman (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 50s) Sir Solly Zuckeriiian is the most powerful scientist in this country. He is the chief scientific adviser to the government and the chairman of the Central Advisory Council for Science and Technology. Dust jackets do not lie! His book should therefore be a political document of the first importance in the field of science policy. Private science Consequently I shall say little about Sir Solly's elegant :ssays on monkeys et al. vhich make up Part 1 (cur-ously entitled "Private icience", and not to be confused with the two volumes k edited under the title. The Ovary, or "The Science of the Private"*). The little I ;hall say concerns two points, ¦irst, after a somewhat rit-alistic bow to Popperian hilosophy of science, Zuck-iman goes on to show how :he sort of science in which he himself has been professionally involved operates. It is noteworthy ithat the aforementioned philosophy of science appears not to have lad much influence on what he actual scientists do nor Aith how they evaluate their wrk. The second point is one hat 1 have culled from an-ither review of Beyond the vory Tower (by A. Storr in he Sunday Times, 29.11.70); :nd although 1 feel rather lean about this, it is my soc-al responsibility as a wiewer of esoteric exts that forces me to repeat the point. Storr points out that in the controversy tetween Zuckerman and Lc Gros Clark, the latter presented some evidence refuting points that the former had made. Sir Solly omits to mention this. I personally cannot judge for I am not a physical anthropologist and hat is what the argument was ibout. We are at the mercy >f the experts in these maters. All of this gives the im-[tession that Sir Solly's defi-lition of private science — 'the system of ' scientific nethod which rules basic dence" (p. 188) — is too £ood to be true. * This is such a serious md unfunny subject that I lad better point out that this i meant as a joke; it is not he actual subtitle of the took. Public science The second part of the wok which is entitled "Pubic Science" is presumably :e bit that is supposed to lie feyond the ivory tower, link-iig as it does politics and jrivate science. But instead )f a systematic analysis or It least account of how icience policy works, instead )[ a view of the impact of cience and technology on flciety, instead of a consid-ired argument on the criteria of scientific choice, we are presented with a series of bite-size, potted versions of an assortment of more relevant and less relevant topics. It is not that Zuckerman says many things that are plainly mistaken (for he does not); nor does he ignore some of the real dangers of modern science and technology (for he reiterates with a commendable regularity the problems of pollution, for example). My criticisms concern what can only be called his curious mixture of sociological unprofundity and political elitism — of the democratic variety, of course. This is best illustrated with reference to three of his major themes in the book, namely (1) men choose the technology they want; (2) the superiority of economic considerations in science policy; and (3) the necessity for scientists and technologists to enter decision-making at the political level. On each of these themes he is, in my view, guilty of serious shortcomings. I shall label these (1) naive voluntarism; (2) techno-economism; and (3) technicocentrism. Evil consequences Jn his chapter "The Technological Foundations of Society" Zuckerman answers the claim that technology has evil consecjuences as follows: "... these things need not happen. Technology is what we ourselves make of scientific knowledge", (p. 134). This is naive voluntarism, naive because it converts the truism that technology is done by people into the dubious assertion that everyone has a similar responsibility for the ill effects of technology. The people, after all, chose the government at the polls! Thus, naive voluntarism is not merely a sociological crudity but also an ideological weapon. This is the general but not the total impression that Zuckerman gives — that in a democratic society such as ours everyone plays a part, directly or indirectly, in the development of our technological civilization. The second theme, techno-econism, points this up very well. It would be cjuite unfair to suggest that there is not a good deal of ambivalence on this issue in the book, as his intelligent reference to Mis-han's The Costs of Economic Growth on page 166 shows. But at the bottom of this very page, he says, "Obviously the value which society attaches to the concept of economic progress has been assessed bv democratic decision". Lt is relevant to point out that those who are most enthusiastic about techno-economic growth at any price tend to be those who have the. resources and the oportunities to escape from its worst effects. I am not for a moment suggesting that men are better off hungry and ill-sheltered than exposed to technology. Far from it; if technology was, in fact, successfully feeding the hungry and providing shelter for those in inadecjuatc housing then we could start arguing about the balance between its benefits and its evils. As it is, the overfed are being overfed and large office blocks can stand empty alongside slums, in poor as well as in rich countries. Sir Solly knows these facts, sometimes cites them, but generally conveniently forgets them. Like most of us — it should be added. An uncritical acceptance of the superiority of techno-economic growth is a very bad thing with very dangerous consequences. Beyond the ivory tower The third theme — technicocentrism (if 1 may be excused this unlovely term) — is the real measure of the failure of this book, and indeed of most books on science and society. Zucker-man's remedy for the problems of public science is that more scientists and technologists should learn how the political system operates and be prepared to operate within it themselves. So, after many years as perhaps the most powerful science policymaker in this country, this is all he has to offer. There is hardly a mention in the book of the public, apart from their quinquennial role of legitimising those who make the decisions; no mention of non-specialist science education or the task of popularization of science and technology; not the remotest hint of the possible part that the citizen might play in policymaking in science and technology at any level. The best we can hope for on the Zuckerman plan is that the scientists and the politicians might learn to live a little more easily with each other, and that the .scientists might wish to join a little more in the games of the politicians. This then is technicocentrism — the inability to conceive that those without technical, expert training could have any possible role to play in decisions of technical rele- L'enfant Sauvage by Francois Truffaut L'Enfant Sauvage is a cinematic rarity. It is one of those singular films that manages to combine a clear, straightforward presentation with a tremendously powerful artistic statement. The story itself is a true one, set in the 1790's in France. It concerns a 12-year old "wild boy" who is discovered and captured in the forest of Avayron. He has been living a totally uncivilized existence there since he was four, and is completely adapted to a lone primitive life-style. He is taken to Paris where he is rescued from misunderstanding and curiosity by a young doctor. The film is based on the records kept by the doctor of his efforts to educate and civilize the boy. A simple story, well acted and charmingly filmed. Almost a period set piece it if were not for the devastating significance of its subject. Education is a process we usually see applied over a long period of time to children who never have the chance of an alternative. Somehow the arbitrary and brutal nature of it is disguised by this graduated familiarity. But to see it imposed on a half-grown human being who has had an alternative is a quite different experience. Then the arrogance of the cultural imposition and the destructiveness of the process are thrown into sharp relief. Education is seen as a grind-ing-under of natural priorities, an instilment of taboos, and a perversion of spontaneity. The climax of this in the film comes when the Doctor has to agonizingly violate his own sense of justice in order to test whether he has succeeded in grafting that sense onto his subject. L'Enfant Sauvage is essential viewing for all of us still inside the educational system. Ryan's Daughter by David Lean David Lean's latest film "Ryan's Daughter" is a spectacular episode of Irish life at the turn of the century. Nevertheless Ryan's Daughter includes the successful style of David Lean, and for any of his fans this should be enough. Lean has a marvellous sense of proportion in his filming, he is a gifted story teller, and the image mixes beautifully with a non too obvious poetry and some wonderful music by Maurice Jarre. Ryan's daughter (Sarah Miles) is a young girl whose romantic aspirations have overcome all patriotic feelings for the Irish independence. Her marriage to the school teacher, soon loses its interest, and the young British Major (Christopher Jones) becomes her lover. All would be well, hadn't the people of Kirrary suddenly discovered that they were to have a leading role in the Irish fight. From then onwards the film becomes a terrible embroglio. This lengthy film would ¦ vance. This position is reinforced by techno-econo-mism, which holds that all the most important deci-cisions in modern society are of this type. But we live in a democratic society, so these views must be supported by the bulwark of naive voluntarism which paradoxically asserts that these non-experts can meaningfully give the technocrats, through their political sponsors, a mandate for all that they might do. What, then, lies beyond the ivory tower? Beyond the ivory tower lies more ivory tower. have been incredibly boring had it not been for the outstanding acting of Sarah Miles, and the beautiful photography of the western coast of Ireland. Fidel by Saul Landau FIDEL is the kind of documentary that just can't fail to be interesting. Despite the fact that it is a rather noisy, chopped piece of filming, the novelty of its subject easily sustains it. Having seen Castro mutilated by a Hollywood simulation, it is impossible to resist the temptation to see the real thing— even through the filters of an editor. The film is primarily a portrait of the man. We follow Castro on a jeep junket through the Cuban backwoods while he gets direct feedback from his people on the revolution. He appears as an expansive, but humane and personal leader of his people. Surrounding Castro's charisma is the reality of Cuba and its revolution: a people with inexhaustible needs; an economy with a shortage of nearly everything; and a value system that despite this places equal value on human integrity and material development. Fidel laughs with his people as they work together. But throughout this picture lurks the suspicion that it is very much an editor's film. It is a little too smooth, a little too complementary even in its portraits of negative aspects, to be a credible documentary. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes by Billy Wilder Billy Wilder's sense of humour is nothing new to film audiences (e.g. "Some like it hot"), but when he picks on Sherlock Holmes, you have good reasons to wonder what the outcome will be. We have all at some moment come across the famous private detective of 221b Baker Street. But what we've never known is that the morals of Sherlock Holmes were not always of high standards. Wilder is one of those film directors, who know how to make people laugh. Holmes (Robert Stephen) is a drug addict, he is not ashamed to use homosexuality as an excuse in front of an excessively demanding lady. In fact Holmes is human and a beautiful lady spy (Genevieve Page) is good enough reason to drive his investigations on the wrong track. Billy Wilder's film is amusing, but the story in it is incomplete and rather obscure. This film tries to include, with success at limes, all the elements of Conan Doyle's stories: white canaries, a pink umbrella, seven dwarfs. Queen Victoria and the Loch Ness Monster. Robert Stephen is a convincing Sherlock Holmes, and he adds to this chaotic film the only touch of "doylian" reality. Page 6 BEAVER January 28*, ^71 For your delectation and delight . Well what are you doing during the vac? Spending it in bed, as the last editor suggested, or joining in a community action project with immigrant school children with the present incumbent of the editorial chair? But perhaps this isn't good enough for you anarchists and budding junior execs. Hard luck on you latter lot —A.I.E.S.E.C. have stopped recruiting for this year's labour camps. Nevertheless they'll still be there next year (and the next and the next ad nauseum). For those who wish to discover the brave New World, BUNAC offer you the cheapest charter flights. But because our relations with the US Embassy are such to discount any chance of reviving the special relationship, we do advise you to apply for a work permit well in advance. We are told by our betters that this summer will herald the reunion of Britain and Europe, so why not get a job on the Continent? Committed revolutionaries can fulfil their proletarian ambitions by consulting the Directory of Summer Jobs Abroad which includes jobs such as bar attendants, chambermaids, loo cleaners in some remote corner of Albania. For people with more sophisticated tastes what about becoming a water-sport instructor at the Club Mediterranee in Morocco. Members of the Gay Liberation Front can join such a similar set in Tangiers (Morocco). We've told you a lot about what to do, now lets turn to how to get there. Hitching is still the cheapest way of getting around but those of you who feel too exhausted after an LSE session KASHMIR OF AFGHANISTAN? We are arranging overland expeditaons in the summer to various parts of Asia and Africa, several of whidi involve trekking on Joot with guides and porters In remote areas. The expeditions ones to: Kashmir, Chitral, Central Afghanistan, Persia, Eastern cost from £85 for 5 weeks to £194 for 3 months, and will include Anatalia, and Morocco. Full details from:— Peter McKay, INTERNATIONAL TREKS ORGANISATION, 62 Battersea High Street, London SWll Tel. 01 228 0498. can opt for alternative means of travel. BSTC offer you the cheapest chartered flight to Europe and the Middle East, starting with a £10.50 return trip to Paris; North Africa for example is £18 away so you don't have any excuses (except if your bank manager grows horns and gigantic fangs). It might even be worth paying your £2 subscription to that maligned body, the NUS, to take advantage of their cheap flight sea, coach, rail journeys. They even do package holidays for those who have not yet liberated themselves from the elaborately planned family holidays of their childhood! NUS publish a booklet "Student Traveller" giving details of most of their services, which is available from the Euston Road offices. As a last alternative you can always apply for a safari either in Russia, Turkey, or as usual exiting Morocco as advertised on endless pages of the Sunday Times. Jt remains to wish you a happy holiday ! BEAVER PROTREK ARE DRIVING STUDENTS AWAY! Join a small mixed group of free living young (18-35) adventurers. Travel overland to the 'NEW areas of Albania, Russia, Turkey and the Balkans. Discover Moscow and the wild Caucasian Mountains. Explore Istanbul and the remote southern coast of Turkey. Join the small band of adventurers to enter Alliania, the mysterious 'Land of Eagles'. 28-45 days from only £69 inclu. all camp and hotel fees. Free 'Adventure Dossier' from: Protrek, Progressive Tours, 100 Rochester Row, London, SWl. 'Tel. 01-834-3981 HOST A FRENCH STUDENT AND ENJOY A FREE SKMNG HOUDAY IN FRANCE Further details: 72 Burton Court, Franklin's Row, London S.W.3. Clearway to Management with British Rail "Every major firm will follow this lead" predicts Monty Meth, Daily IVlail Industrial Correspondent, describing the British Railways Board's search for young high flyers to manage the railways of the future. If you think you measure up to the challenge of the 70's - the era of the Advanced Passenger Train - with British Rail, find out about the management opportunities for graduates in the Traffic, Engineering, Finance, and Estates departments, and in the fields of Planning and Marketing, Operational Research and Data Processing. Ask the Secretary of your University Appointments Board for booklets describing the opportunities and havp a talk with the railway representative when he visits your university, or write direct to: Principal Management Recruitment Officer, British Railways Board, Royal London House, 22-25 Finsbury Square, London EC2 P2BQ. For the next 15 days these young peoille will live together UNTIL NOW THEY HAD NEVER MET They have discovered the special excitement of a Villaparties holiday. So could you. Come and be yourself. Relax in a mediterranean villa with an intimate group of young people (18-30) all intent on having the most enjoyable holiday of their lives. You can ride, skin dive, dance, waterski, go sailing and then completely relax around a warm friendly beach barbecue. Finish the day with a midnight dip. Find your own romance and excitement in the most exciting holiday of your life. Fill in this coupon to receive your fully detailed colour brochure. 15 days In Spoil Greece orminarca FULLY INCLUSIVE FROM s yfls Name- Address. I I I VILLiURAIIVIES Nuffield House 41-46 Piccadilly London WIV OHE Tel. 01-748 3000 Brochure enquiry service. Villaparties, P.O. Box 23, Hertford, Herts. I I I Jaii>«ary 28, 1971 BEAVER Page 7 NSie. Chunga's Revenge Is Zappa still sore about the lack of recognition gained by the old, now disbanded. Mothers of Invention? He produced the drive behind vivid avante-garde explorations in music, sought the immediacy of the Pop/Progressive media but seems to have expected the acknowledgement and CURVED AIR acclaim of the mainstream music critics. Maybe this accounts for the chip which Zappa seems to carry so heavily. But Frank Zappa has not allowed this frustration to impair his creativity or scope. Instrumentation musical production, publishing, film direction and production arc among his accomplishments. Zappa's life style circumscribes the complete audio-visual concept. The recent "tour", of a few British venues, by Zappa with the new Mothers along with the release of "Chunga's Revenge" have brought Zappa and the band back into the centre pages of the musical press. What the new band now does will be measured against the "Hot Rats" album which set a high standard, difficult to follow. During the interim period "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" was released as a sort of historical fill-in; a selection of Mothers material, vintage 1967-1969. The new band is currently playing an integration of complex rock coupled with the satire and obscenity which stem mainly from Mark Volman and Howard Kalen, the two main vocalists whose antics on stage sometimes add to the presence of the act whilst at other times doing little to enhance the musical content by being a distraction to the listener. Known as The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie on the Chunga's Revenge Album, it appears they arc expected to play a prominent role in the 200 Motels film, which we are told "is coming soon". A little over half the material on the album is from the score of this film the remainder comprising instrumental passages in the usual Zappa style. An album well worth investigating, that is if one does not try too hard to find some inner meaning to the work, but simply accepts it as a send-up via rock, and good rock at that. The group CURVED AIR are appearing at LSE "The Ram" At L.S.E. "Do you think you'd be an Archbishop if you talked Cockney and not fruity Oxbridge?" someone asked Michael Ramsey of Canterbury when he answered questions in the Old Theatre recently. "I hope so—if the merits were the same," came the reply: "I'm sorry about the Oxbridge bit, but you've got to come from somewhere." Touches of humour, humanity, moments of profundity made his visit a memorable one. Belief He began by asserting that no one ixian or church can have a monopoly of truth. "Why do you believe in God?" someone asked — and another added waggishly "DO you believe in God?" and received a well-considered answer: "I began by looking for some meaning and purpose in existence. I found ideas of good and evil, right and wrong, truth and beauty—held universally and not just by Christians. And 1 found this led me to a source that I had to refer to as He (or She!), at the roots of my personality, and that this source made demands on me as a personal, responsible being. I can't prove this conviction to be true, but I can show you it's reasonable to hold it." Violence Asked about violence, whether it can be Christian and based on the Bible, Ramsey said it couldn't, in his view, be justified by the account of Jesus turning the money-changers out of the Temple. "Christians have traditionally thought in terms of the Just War, but this has to be seen both in the light of causes and of results. Today it would be impossible without destroying everything for which such a war might be fought." Many found this unsatisfactory—he didn't go on to explain what he meant by a 'Just War'—could a Revolutionary War be considered 'Just'? "Christians are divided here," said the Archbishop; "I don't think the Church, qua Church, has any business promoting 'vague belligerence' (cries of rubbish! here)—but individual Christians qua citizens have every right to support guerilla movements." The State Asked "When should the Church oppose the State?" Ramsey replied, "When it has proved so oppressive on Saturday, 30th January. CURVED AIR are the great new 'hit' of the music scene, according to many of those who profess to know in the music business. The CURVED AIR album 'A I R CONDITIONING' (Warner Bros. WSX 3012) was the first album released in Britain with colour imprints on the disc itself. This fact together with the large amount of advertising that publicised the album received ensured a hit. In fact, the record reached number 11 in the 'Melody Maker' album charts and is still in the best selling twenty. What, however, of the music, aside from all the talk, publicity and success (popularly known in the industry of human happiness; self named; as 'hype'—when applied in a derogative sense). The prominent and much talked about feature of the group is the violin (Derryl Way). 1 am still waiting for a violinist to continue from where Suger Cane Harris left off on the final eight bars of "Willie the Pimp' on Zappa's 'Hot Rats' album. Surely there was the best use put as yet of the violin in rock music, combining both technical brilliance and the capacity for the sound of the instrument to sear through the emotions as well, if not better than any recorded guitar-playing by any Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix. Daryl Way makes rather different use of his instrument. He is classically trained and his playing is lyrical. The violin that it has apostasised from its proper function under God of preserving order, etc. There is a movement within the New Testament itself from obeying to disparaging the State as it came to defy itself. I believe the church is primarily a reconciling force within society. We should always try to persuade—but of course (referring to Dr. Vors-ter or Ted Heath—or both?) there arc always some who are never persuaded." On dialogue with Marxists, Dr. Ramsay said there couldn't be any fusion between Christianity and pure Marxism: but there could be profitable dialogue. Apartheid "Why do so many Anglicans and church people in S. Africa passively accept Apartheid?" "Partly because the church tends to reflect and learn from social trends without ceasing to criticise them. The hierarchy has always opposed Apartheid, but it has to convert its laity. Though many of these do make strenuous efforts to preserve multi-racial meeting and worship wherever humanly possible." "Shouldn't the church be less institutional, more concerned about poverty?" Ramsey on the whole agreed"^ "Of course all institutions are by nature conservative. But if we're seriously intent on creating a new society we would wish it to include culture and beauty and have them shared by all. Many Christians have sold out to activism and have ceased to teach the deeper truths of religion. And this has led some to seek elsewhere for spirituality and a range of religious experience that they should be finding within and not not outside the church in this country." Asked about sexual morality. Dr. Ramsey said he had been one of the firmest supporters of the move to legalise homosexual relationships, but he didn't think they amounted to marriage. Not that procreation was the purpose of marriage—far from it—but that it was within marriage that sex found its ultimate fulfilment and meaning. Dr. Ramsey will continue the Debate when he speaks in ULU on Feb. 9, 10 and 11 at 7.30 p.m. Graham Dowell is only heard on 'Stretch' rifting over a solid rock backing and even then briefly. For the rest of the album the violin is used in the same setting with the other instruments except for 'Vivaldi' and 'Cannons' — almost solely violin tracks. The violin is, it would be fair to say, what CURVED AIR is based around and not one of the other instruments (drums, bass, guitar/keyboards/synthesizer). The other pillar of the group is the female vocalist Sonja Kristina who sounds to me to have a resemblance to Sandy Denny (of Fairport Convention and Fotheringay) in approach and voice and also seems to be reminiscent in style and her lyric-writing for the musical 'HAIR' (but was this impression induced by reading that in her pre-CURVED AIR days — she appeared in that same musical?) Comparisons with the U.S. group IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY seem inevitable but CURVED AIR have an identity of their own, not least due to the fact that all their material is written by the group; which in these days of market saturation of the group scene and the decline in the number of unused ideas available in the rock-music context, it is pleasantly unusual. Nevertheless it occurs to me that there must be many groups with albums (probably as good as or better than CURVED AIR'S) who never make it only because they don't get the publicity to sell, their records. Such groups that do make it, despite this disadvantage, do so on their reputation as a 'live' act. CURVED AIR have it both ways—a successful LP and a live reputation. They should be worth seeing on January 30th and as with 'Air Conditioning', decide for yourself whether they live up to what you have heard and what 1 have told you. Clive Attenborough (Social V.P.) 99 "Black Panther Panther, Panther, burning dark — What poor linear mind can mark Thy declared asymmetry Loosed from dread authority? In what transatlantic skies Uttered you those fearful cries? What the cause that lit the fire Of rebellious desire? What New Society, what Art Could turn your wrath or win your heart? And once that heart began to beat Could you withdraw, reason retreat? What the manacle, what chain Held you prisoner, hand and brain Fettered bv dogmas? What read grasp Made clenched fist of friend's hand-clasp? When the Stars threw down their Stripes And slaves hung up non-violent pipes; Did Freud or Fanom smile—did He Who made the Luther King make thee? What brave Kingdom, what New Deal Would you trust, embrace for real? Build barricades! Burn slogans sweet Along the walls of Houghton Street! Panther, Panther, prowling free Through shaggy glades of L.S.E.; Unframe its fearful symmetry And blow its mind with anarchy! Graham Dowell (with apologies to William Blake) Page 8 BEAVER January 28, ,371 The divinity of the Right Toward the Right Revolution by D.J. Levy Of all the things for which we can thank the flabby self-obsessed decade that has just passed, and there are plenty, the most important is undoubtedly the puncturmg of the lib- our duty is to see that they lose. "Perfect technology!" they scream in their panic, "Hurry up with the data banks that will give us a few more years of control. But above all chain thp hiim£)Ti soul ever more tichtlv to the plate glass and chrome polish to which we have reduced Western civilisation . the sou^ ever by the blood of the French Revolution and the sweat of 19th century industry, is •» retreat, but what alternative are we given? God preserve us frS,\ the tmantS S orthodox marxism with its dreams of a kingdom of freedom and its r^lity of barbed wire ^ must be And what about the other marxists— vou know, the bearded ones who banned beards in Cuba or the nihilistic Mao worshipping red guards of China. J>ot tor us we nmsi d astutt enough to S ILugh therpfopagS^^^ behind the colourful posters to the real world they offer, the world of uniformed robots every bit as dehumamsed as the cardboard men of the capitalist nations. CYNICISM AND CORRUPTION Just because the marxist-democrats seem to constitute an alternative to the liberal-democrats of the West there is no need to tie our revolution to theirs. In fact, such a course can only lead to disaster. A revolution of materialism will not destroy a materialist "culture" and no more will the pursuit of a dream world of absolute equality and abstract "freedom" do anything to put right a world that has suffered so much from the liberal's pursuit of these very chimeras. Remember and note carefully Wyndham Lewis's words about the "transidon-ist radicals" of his time; "They wish for a transition into a New Philistinism (smeared over with a debased intellectual varnish and accompanied with a quite needless [material] violence), and not a transition of a more truly revolutionary order, into an order radically different from the 'capitalist state'." Socialism is the child of liberalism, and like its parent it must pass from a flaming youth into the dirty decay of cynicism and corruption. Yes real freedom can exist, but only in the context of a society anchored firmly in the realities of human nature. "One begins by wanting justice and one ends by organising a police force", says the police superintendent in Camus' play, Les Justes, and this is the story of all past experiments in democracy. None of the apologias of the prophets of the new left suggest that their experiment, if it ever gets off the ground, will be very different. If we really want to maximise human fulfilment in the world and genuinely to create a society that will re-humanise the zombies of today we must start by abandoning the rose-tinted spectacles of the peddlers of democracy. We must start with a view of man that recognises him for what he is. "A man," wrote T. E. Hulme, "is essentially bad, he can only accomplish anything of value by discipline— ethical and political. Order is thus not merely negative but creative and liberating. Institutions are necessary." We don't have to go the whole way with Hulme to recognise that this image is much closer to the truth than the alternative models churned out by the fairy godmothers of the democratic fables. But what sort of order? Certainly not the type represented by the tyranny of 9 to 5 factory hours, an order that is the reverse of the liberating, creative context we need for our lives. Not the liberal-democrat order with its myth of individual self sufficiency and its ever increasing centralised control of every aspect of human life. Still less the Stalinist nightmare that lurks in the shadows behind the slogans of most of our self styled "radicals". Unlike them we're in the business of revolution for real, we know where we are going and we can identify our enemy in all his disguises. That enemy is democracy. NO COMPROMISE "It is because we love the people," wrote Charles Maurras, "that we can make no compromise with democracy," and he was right. By its first assertion of the idea of popular sovereignty, democracy succeeds in confusing society with the state. The result is the mythology of the state as the executive of the "general will", Mussolini's fascism merely carries this democrat idea to its logical conclusion. Against such a force, which acts by definition in the interests of all (or at least most), what real independence can be left to the social groupings, local, religious and industrial, which constitute the primary units of association in a nation? Marxism presents no reaj answer to this problem for why should the executives of the proletariat, always a small proportion of the whole, give up the power they hold in the period of revolutionary dictatorship. The urge to dominate is independent of any class interest and men don't act as marxist text books say they should. Bakunin recognised this and called instead for the abolition of the state as the first necessity of revolution. But anarchism, like its fellow democrat rivals, is based on an over rosy picture of human nature and a quite pathetic belief in the possibilities of transcending the awkward instincts which we happen to have. It is a pipe dream to expect harmony of any sort to emerge spontaneously from a society made up only of primary associations between which there is no arbitrating authority. Intertribal relations are scarcely renowned for their lack of friction, and multi-tribalisim lies at the factual core of the anarchist solution. And at the end of the "revolutionary" process? The tyranny of the strongest group, Hitler's New Order with or without the racial mysticism. The true answer, that of the right revolution, leaves no factor out of account. It depends on no false idealism concerning the nature of the human beings who will gain so immeasurably from it. It works for no partial class interest and depends on no miraculous transformation of men into angels. It is the solution we find in the works of Charles Maurras. DEMOCRATIC OCTOPUS Like the anarchists, Maurras recognises the overwhelming importance of immediate human associations, but he also realises that "In order that they should exist end endure there must be another power". This power is the arbitrating authority which preserves the balance between the free associations. We call it the state but it is a stale utterly different from the democratic octopus that oppresses us today. Tomorrow's state makes no pretension to derive its authority from the people, it is instead a necessary functional organ of a sane society, tightly limited in its sphere of action. No serious person has ever suggested that a civil judge ought to derive his authority from the litigants who appear before him. If he did so he would either be partial to the physically stronger party or else powerless. Yet this is precisely the position of the democrat state based on the idea of popular sovereignty and doomed to be the slave of whoever can pull the strings most effectively. The Maurrasian theory demands that the state be freed from society in order that society can develop free from the encroaching hand of the state. It is the idea of anarchy plus one, but that one utterly indispensible. The idea of a society in which "Order is only a means, a point of departure" and in which "liberty lies not at the beginning but at the end" of the argument. This is Maurras' neat reversal of the ideology of the liberal-democrats, and a necessary one, for liberty is found "not at the root but in the flowers and fruit of human nature". IDEOLOGY OF MIS CONCEPTION Given the democrats' misunderstanding of this truth what can we expect from democracy but a chaos implac-cably leading to totalitarianism. The state, claiming to be the emanation of the people's will extends its tentacles accordingly. Authority, unsure of itself, . asserts its power ever more petulantly, and yet with a logic inherent in the democratic situation. Based on an ideology of misconception it must mould men to fit its own preconceived patterns. In these circumstances Marcuse's mistake does not lie in his perception of the one-dimensionality of modern Western man, but in his diagnosis of its cause and his prescription for its remedy. Modern society is not oppressive merely because it is capitalist, that is part of the problem but it is not the root of it. That root is democracy, and the rule of quantity in wealth, plutocracy, is merely part of the general ideology of quantity which is found in all branches of the democratic tree. COHERENT MASS All societies will be oppressive to the extent that they are based on the same or similar sets of lies. This is manifestly true of the stalin-ist states of Eastern Europe but it is no less true of their confreres in other parts of the globe. Mao's "Cultural Revolution" represents a desperate attempt to struggle against the implacable logic of democratic suffocation, but all to no effect, for the revolution only succeeds to the extent that it desroys the ordered context of life without which all liberty is an abstraction. On our own liberal-demo-cracies let Maurras himself speak. "Between social sialism and social individualism there is no contradiction to resolve, merely a consequence to note. A logician who started from the premise of individual sovereignty and who wished to construct a state, might well die before leaving the premised "Me" and erecting his system; but if he does construct it, if he builds it on this individualist basis, he cannot possibly conceive or realise anything else but the despotism of the state. Theoretically, his state is the most absolute of absolute sovereignties, because it is the emanation of the total sum of uncoercable individual sovereignties and receives from them all force, all authority and all majesty. Practically, being the sole product of the sovereign wills, and not being able to tolerate any intermediate grouping between the individual and itself, the state holds all persons and goods at the mercy of its law. Everyone finds himself alone against the state, the token of all, and all associations can thus be broken one by one by the unified and coherent mass of the others". Faced with this situation what choice have we but to revolt? But here we face two great dangers. The first is that the conditioning and control mechanism of the status quo will be so perfected as to make successful revolt impossible. Here the final disaster would be the reduction of all men and women to the state of doelike passivity already evinced by the majority. The second danger is that there will be a successful revolt, but one carried through by groups infected with other forms of the democratic disease. Such a revolt would swiftly pass into a rigidified stupor scarcely distinguishable from that offered by our rulers of today. Here our task is to work to convince our fellow radicals on the left of the futility of the ideas and schemes which at present they accept so glibly. ANTI-DEMOCRATIC REALISM For our part we call for the establishment by all means necessary of a decentralised society, in which the necessary organs of central authority are freed from the mythology of democratic control and can fairly act out their proper social role of arbitration between freely established social groupings. Our propoganda must, on the one hand, be directed to the mobilisation of increasingly large sections of society against the threat that democracy poses to the very existence of the human mind: and, on the other, toward the regrouping of revolutionary forces around a programme of anti-democratic realism. In this dual task we must work as Maurras said, "By all means, even legal". ESSENTIAL READING FOR STUDENTS. Politics, world events, social & economic affairs, new books, all the arts. EDITED BY RICHARD GROSSMAN. NEW STATESMAN From your college bookstall or newsagent every Friday, 2s. For student concession details write; NEW STATESMAN, Great Turnstile, London WCIV 7HJ. Ja rj 28, 1971 V BEAVER Page 9 Amerika! Amerika! Amerika! A review of Paul Kantner's LP: Blows against the Empire (RCA) "Blows Against The Empire is the result of the combination of Paul Kanl-ner's political views and his interest in science fiction with his musical ability and background (songwriter, vocalist and rhythm guitarist with Jefferson Airplane). On this, his first "solo" effort outside Jefferson Airplane— of which he still remains a member—Kantner is helped out by Grace Slick on vocals and piano; most of the other members of Jefferson Airplane at one time or another; three of the Grateful Dead; David Crosby; Graham Nash; David Freiberg (of Quicksilver Messenger Service); Harvey Brooks (well known "super sessioner); and several other friends. The first side of the LP is taken up with a statement of life in general, and Paul Kantner's in particular, in America in the 1970's. The reaction to socialism, long hair and marijuana by mid-dle-aged, middle class, "silent majority" America is considerably more violent and hostile than in Britain leading to a corresponding intensification of the feelings of the young and oppressed. The opening track on the LP sets the scene with just its title 'Mau Mau (Ameri-kon), provided by two guitars (Kantner and Peter Kaukonen) and the drums of Joey Covington, is hard, driving and repetitive. The lyrics of 'Mau Mau (Ameri-kon)' written by Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, and Joey Covington amongst other things illustrate one of the fundamental tenets of Yippie philsosphy — take the young away from their parents and liberate them. Immediately following this comes the paradox of a coy, even cloying, fairy tale called "The Baby Tree". It's the only track on the LP not written by any member of the Jefferson Starship and is sung by Paul Kantner accompanied only by his banjo playing. It's such an irmocu-ous little number that it could even make it on "Jack-anory". The remaining two tracks on side one are again virtually self-explanatory fcy their titles. In "Let's Go Together" the first mention of the starship occurs. While "A Child Is Coming" is about Grace Slick telling Paul Kantner that she is expecting their child and their desire not to bring up their child in the fascist state of Amerika. As Grace Slick says: "It's none of the government's business who comes to or from my body". The second side of the LP is openly sciencc fiction. The half dozen tracks together constitute a continuous theme. The opener is "Sunrise" and after hearing the less than two minutes of Jack Casady's bass playing on this anyone who thinks John Paul Jones is where electric bass guitar playing is at ought to have their ears syringed. "Sunrise" is an amazingly successful musical visualisation of a literal and metaphorical sunrise with just Casady's electric bass and Kantner's acoustic guitar backing Grace Slick's fantastic vocals. The remaining tracks are a visualisation of the life of these "7000 gypsies swir-lin' together" iboth lyrically and musically. Again the titles are self explanatory: "Home", "Have You Seen The Stars Tonite", "X-M", "Starship". As a musical whole the combination of politics and science fiction works very well. Paul Kantner is no flashy, superstar guitarist but his guitar playing fits the lyrics perfectly. Grace Slick's piano playing is much in evidence. Generally, though, the sound is considerably less complicated and interwoven than one would have expected from a member of Jefferson Airplane. Instrumentation is kept to a minimum (drums only being used on three tracks) but the sound is kept heavy enough to avoid a "folky" feel. I personally believe that "Blows Against The Empire" will prove to be one of the best LP's released during 1971. Its musical validity is unquestionable. Furthermore this LP serves a useful political function. It seems impossible that the frequent hearing of an alternative and more realistic view of Amerikan society, other than that foisted on the public by the corrupt capitalist controlled media, cannot heJp but encourage, in some minds at least, a questioning of established values. When groups with sincere political beliefs like Jefferson Airplane, present their views to mass audiences it must at the very least reinforce the already converted, even if no further converts arc won. Converts to what? Answer: to a form of revolutionary socialism. Obviously the American revolution won't occur overnight if a few more million (several million already do) American kids listen to Jefferson Airplane. The joint is, that once people are aware of the reality of the oppression of the capitalist state they begin to realise its class nature. Until a large number of people actively understand the class structure of society a socialist revolution is improbable if not impossible. Music can politicize people, does politicize people, and must continue to politicize people. "Emmet Grogan" APOCALYPSE THE ODD ALLEGORY Seen near Robert Carr's house last week. Bernard Levin has at last been given column inches. God help The Times, its readers, the establishment, the anti-establishment. Lord Thomson, Lord Muck, et al. There can be no better star to guide the misfortunes of those misfortunates who dare to write columns than to look to history for their instruction. Addison is my prophet. For him the columnists privilege, even duty is to coimnent on the foolish fopperies of his society, its habits, and its philosophies; to temper wit with morality, and morality with wit, or be it immorality. No references are intended to be offensive, and in being general may be taken by each for his own interpretation. Certain themes will recur from time to time, some trivial, others less so, a weak potage of the cynic, the cryptic, and the sceptic. Perhaps the odd allegory. Do not take offence! If the finger is not pointing at you, think again! But now to meet and sub-tance. In a society of increasing specialisation and con.sequent polarisation there must be a place for the jack of all trades master of none who can go between each to make the whole more effective. The problem is simply communication. The writer wonders whether communication in College is not being stood on its head with staff/student communication of a sort, improving, and student/student communications failing. The most efficient way I could find out about last term's excitement was to wait for the ten o'clock news at home. plications for pairing to the chief whip, or men write to the editor, women can come with me. Revolution is indeed in the air. Censure is the motion to remain motionless. All union officers are to resign unless they hold alien passports, in which case demonstrate. What is the true nature and value of protest? Where is the line between egoist and altruist? Who has achieved anything? A centipede who had a corn on every foot went to the Ministry for advice, and was told he would find life easier as a fly. "How do 1 make the change?" he asked. His reply "We only make policy and that is a purely technical question". Anyone at a loose end on Wednesdays should join the rowing club. Through the quality of their advocacy one would think the whole College was gay. But revolution is in the air and I proclaim a day out for all heterosexuals to Hampstead Heath for an open air demonstration. Ap- By way of conclusion just a few lines from Pope: "Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike; Alike reserved to blame or to commend, A timorous foe, and a suspicious friend; Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer—" FINIS LUNATIC LIBERATION FRONT Free yourselves from what your masters define as sanit-ty! We work to destroy the world in which atrocious acts of genocide are the result of rational efforts to maintain the wealth and power of a few greedy fools, and in which power-hungry idiots such as Nixon, Kosygin, Mao Tse Tung, and Heath everywhere manipulate the masses under the facade of Democracy, Socialism, Communism or what not. We will expose those now in power and those who would rule us if they had the power themselves as the TRUE lunatics, until no-one will be seen as sane enough to rule anyone else. THINGS No longer do policemen walk around LSE in disguise. Those large flat-footed gentlemen frequently to be seen are what you think they are. Incidentally, talking of our friends in blue, did you notice the plainclothesman in the black anorak on the first mass Houghton street demo? He it was who had stopped and searched Philip Roys (Labsoc's answer to the Aga Khan on Waterloo Bridge a few nights previously. Phil still doesn't know why. Who arc we? We are crazy, but not insane enough to loon about openly in a society such as the LSE which has many more than its share of police and academic spies and in which even some of the slaves (WHO ARE YOU) are so indoctrinated by twelve or more years of schooling and all of the other weapons in the hands of those who would control our minds, that they honestly believe that they are FREE! OPEN YOUR EYES, IDIOTS, AND LOOK AT THE FOOLS WHO ARE CONTROLLING YOUR LIVES AT THE LSE, from the Board of Governors down to the Board of Studies and. melee. It is well known that Andrew Hickley (daddy of them all) is thinking of standing, but people in the know believe that something is hatching in that inert yet loquacious political society ied (?) by Chairman Patricic Gorman-Breslin. Their only difficulty is that there is a dearth of Pryces, and we might yet see half Labsoc backing a Liberal, and the other half a Socialist, candidate. Breslin and Pryce might yet be both drawn into the contest. Presidential elections looming up and the rumours (and the mud) are already flying thick and fast. Far be it from your intrepid correspondent to refrain from the Dave Wynne, chairman of the newly founded Communist Society, ex-President of Manchester University Students' Union and member of the NUS executive, is cur- yes, even down to your very own Student Union officers. Some day we hope that the whole of the LSE and the whole of the world will be an Open Asylum. At the moment overt lunatics are all "behind walls where they are caged like animals, submitted to electric shocks, forcibly fed diets of drugs and denied intellectual and sensual stimulation, SO WE WILL REMAIN UNDERGROUND UNTIL THE TIME IS RIGHT FOR OPEN REVOLUTION. We have already infiltrated the LSE in great numbers: the repercussions can only be imagined. BE inSANE! JOIN US! rently engaged in behind-the-scenes manipulating to get LSE back into NUS. Posing as an innnocuous liberal, he wanders around the School persuading gullible first-years of the virtues of reaffiliation. Morover, an article printed in 'Beaver' last term on the NUS under the name of Dave Western was authored by none other than Mr. Wynne. Isn't it time he started campaigning under his own flag (and name)?-- Finally, if you're still dithering on the parapet of Waterloo Bridge. Chris Pryce returns next session to do an M.Sc. And don't worry, folks, refectory food is up to standard—LSE standard! Page 10 BEAVER January 1?^^^ Old boys and Frenchmen! The infamous Portsmouth escapade apart, the highlights of the social season to date have been the Old Boys game and the HEC visit. The former was played on Sunday November 29th, 1970 just happening to coincide with a minor cloudburst. Our hopes that our opponents would be too drunk to be effective were shattered. Old Hands like Richardson, Rothwell and Satchwell soon sweated the effects of two days drinking out of their system and the Old Boys soon won by 9pts to 0. Having dispensed with the preliminaries we could start the serious business of drinking. The old hands were again in top form led by our own, our very own (unfortunately), Brian Morgan. At 10 o'clock suitably mellowed, the Old Boys hit the trail for civvy street after indulging in a weekend of dissipated reminiscences of student days in LSE, we students were left figuring out how to stretch our grants to cover the Portsmouth trip, this night, and next weeks party for the retiring Captain. The new term has begun similarly with the visit of HEC. Thursday night the two teams enjoyed a banquet in the Senior Common Room. Perhaps we broke new ground by singing "The Wild West Show" in the SCR. Later in the more appropriate setting of the Bar, both teams exhausted their repertoires of the entertainments in which we decadent, drunken drop-outs delight. Partially recovered, the following day the 1st team just about deserved to beat the French by 8pts. to 3pts. in a hard game. Paddy Smith and James Allen scored for us, and Ian Edwards, who played remarkably well, converted one. On Saturday we took our guests to Cardiff to watch Wales devastate a side called England. Unfortunately (or fortunately) owing to a puncture on the journey down and a misunderstanding about the time of departure, we could only spend 4 hours in Cardiff after the match, but that seemed long enough to get pissed. We arrived back in London at 2 a.m.; the French departed into the night; Keith Turner and co. departed to Carr-Saunders for a game of poker which lasted till 6.30. The HEC visit would not have been possible without the tremendous work done by Angela and Kevin in the AU — Any grievances about the French visit should be blamed on them! Ivan Morgan Per Aspera Ad Astra One of the hardiest and most dedicated clubs in LSE — after all, the trip to Lasham involves a 120 mile round trip into the depths of Hampshire, leaving London at the ungodly hour of seven a.m. — the Gliding Club provides plenty of opportunities for health giving activities other than relaxed, poetic soaring into a cumulus at 1,900 feet above the mud; for example, body-building is promoted by the not infrequent activity of shoving the wretched gliders three miles across the airfield every time the wind shifts; mental agility is encouraged by the process of sneaking one's name to the top of the casual flying list MEDITATION The way to the realization of the Higher Self Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Guided sessions with practice and discussion at The Theosophical Sociefy 50 Gloucester Place, London W1H 3HJ. IVIeditation leads to greater physical relaxation and emotional control, more harmony in personal relationships and a step forward in spiritual progress. Other courses at the Society include Studies in Mysticism, a Study of the Mystical Kabbalah and studies of The Great Scriptures of the World. For further information write or telephone the Society. ¦¦ Soccer Club Report while avoiding lynching at the hands of the irate citizenry thus superseded; and finally, the inner man is catered to by the recently formed Cultural Activities Sub - Committee, devoted principally to the fine art of stud poker. Finally, the Captain would like me to state that whereas normally the Club would welcome new flying members with open arms, certain problems have arisen since Stephen Boscoe, the Club Treasurer, fled the country in a converted Patagonian Air Force Sopwith Camell with the year's entire AU subsidy. John Stathatos The unlimited organising capacity of the new executive was duly demonstrated this Saturday when the trip to Oxford went off in clockwork fashion. A game of football, a piss-up and back in time for the last tube home. The advantages of the Club's new laissez-faire (some would say anarchical) policy, have already become obvious to all. So strong was the air of general satisfaction that minor setbacks such as the lack of a pitch, not to mention food, were quickly assimilated (except by P. Murrell that is). Some criticism was heard of the management's selection policy. Here we admit some blame. A First team victory of eight-nil (Mick Young scored five) and a Second team defeat of one-nine does tend to hint at an imbalance somewhere, but after much heated discussion the fault has now been located and in future we pledge to provide the Seconds with the goalkeeper at all times. Note must be made however of Ray Potter's brave attempts to avert the first six. Equally worthy of note are Mick Young's FIVE goals— not bad from 35 attempts, Harry Button's failure to score and Jimmy Mutton's failure to get pissed—that's what memories are made of. J. Aspinall (Captain) used textbooks bought for the highest prices Second-hand (marvellous range) and Stationery (everything for the student) Department. The Economists' Bookshop, King's Chambers, Portucal Street. London WC 2. For a quotation ask to see Brian Simmons L.S.E. X—Country do it At the end of last term the Cross-Country Club won the London University Intercollegiate Cup for the first lime ever. The team was led home by Doug Gunstone who finished second in the University followed by Tan Gardiner who was tenth. The Club is having one of its best ever seasons. A few days before the ULU Championships the Club com-peted in the Borough Road College relay, which attracts an entry from nearly all the best Universities and Colleges in the Country. LSE finished seventh, just behind Loughborough College, and was the first UL college home. The Club has a busy term ahead of it including the Q.M.C. 7^ mile race, the Hyde Park Relay and the Southern and National Championships. Strip Show Carrying on from our last spectacular report, we now present a further episode in the life of the LSE Rugby Club. Apart from the fantastic run of success by the 2nd XV, the big event has been the disastrous day in Portsmouth. The prologue to the day's events were heavy defeats of the 1st and 2nd XV's. Our ne wstar of stage, screen and strip show is none other than your own Webb!!! He distinguished himself on the field by doing nothing but managed to lose his trousers in a pub near the ground. He then stripped twice in the Union bar of Portsmouth Polytechnic and rounded off the evening in the middle of the A3 followed by some cavorting on the grass verge. This can all be seen on "Sportsnight with Coleman" next Wednesday. And now to the other events of the past few weeks. The 1st XV were narrowly defeated in the first round of the Gutteridge Cup los-ins 8-0 to Woolwich. The captain of the 2nd XV, Keith Turner, is increasing his renown by getting a warning from the referee at Portsmouth because of dangerous j play and fighting. This is his second warning in four games. The, and 1 quote, "young, gifted and black" captain of the Strollers, Rudi Mendonga of Pontypridd, disappeared from the Rugby scene last weekend to further his exploits on the red light district of Amsterdam, with his ex-wife (probably his mother-in-law). And now our birthday honours list for this issue. John Burnside is knighted for becoming alcoholic; Jon Horsthuis will be castrated for his contributions to the LSE Rugby Club Joke Book — ask him about his "windy, windy road", and finally fondolences go to Steven Baumgartner who failed to score against Chelsea College even though his most avid fan. Bob Iverach, scored twice. A.U. NOTES Rugby Club beat HEC (Paris) 8-3 with intoxicating play! Basketball Club visiting Paris in the near future LSE Cross-Country Club win ULU Cup for first time. Rejuvenated LSE Hockey Club hoping for promotion. I'he Gymnasium looks less forbidding with a new coati of paint. Soccer Club beat City 1-0 and Ruskin College, Oxford 8-0. Sam Hazely stars in bar! Flections for AU executive will be held in a few weeks time—' watch out for adverts. French Judo Club will soon visit LSE—beware of anyone; smelling of garlic—or wine! S I M M O N D S University Booksellers Our shop is not the biggest in London, but it is among the best. And it's a place where you will obtain individual attention. We stock most of the books on your syllabus. 16 Fleet Street, London, E.C.4. (opp. Chancery Lane) FLE 3907