The main reason for the closure of Frendz was lack of capital and secondly lack of energy and efficiency in the people running the paper. It does not mean that the alternative press is dying, or that our alternative distribution doesn't work. It needed money and more energy but the system itself does work.

I feel so strongly that things are changing and changing fast which is why there are so many tired and boring people bemoaning the death of a movement which has left them behind. The alternatives have evolved and become integrated into our society. Just look at the spread of consumer groups, protest groups, industrial militancy. People in general are dissatisfied with what's going down and they need clear and unhysterical information to understand how and why things are fucked and, perhaps most important, what they can do about it.

Anyway, I won't go on with the sermon but those are my, I think, important points which papers like Oz and IT are going to have to face up to and why I like MG a lot.

Love,

John May (ex Frendz)