What is it about?
In the anarchist movement from 1870 to 1940, anarchist groups organized around their journals. The publications were usually produced on a letterpress and the printers themselves were often members of the groups. The writing, printing, binding, and distributing of the journals was a key daily, weekly or monthly activity of each group. The press itself was a kind of participant in the process, not exactly a comrade but much more than a passive tool. The remarkable persistence of anarchism during this time, despite state and corporate repression, may reflect the importance of shared material activity to radical politics.
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Why is it important?
The letterpress blurs the line between organic being and technological object. It was an actant within anarchist politics - it had the capacity to affect and be affected. While letterpresses are considered "old media," they share a great deal with "new (digital) media." The assemblages of printers/presses/publications/reading publics were cites for a powerful circulation of public speech and may explain the remarkable persistence of anarchism.
Perspectives
This research emerged out of my book on Emma Goldman (Emma Goldman: Political Thinking in the Streets (Rowman and Littlefield, 2011). I was struck by the ubiquity of printers, the centrality of publications, and the general tenacity of anarchist groups. While the public image of the anarchist is a dark figure hiding a bomb, a more apt image would be the printer, standing in front of the type case, arranging letters on the composing stick to create the words that could change worlds.
Kathy Ferguson
University of Hawaii System
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Anarchist Printers and Presses, Political Theory, May 2014, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0090591714531420.
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