A Revolution in Anarchist Printing - Pirate Press in Olympia, Washington

Have you ever noticed how so many anarchist ideas remain on
the internet? Have you noticed that the few anarchist
publications around get more contributions than production help,
and that so many ideas never make it into any of them? Have you
also ever noticed that many people won’t take the time to
search for anarchist ideas even though they may agree with
them? We think we have some ideas to get anarchist ideas off the
internet, have unlimited printing and distribution possibilities,
and to put anarchist ideas into the hands of curious and/or
misinformed people.

This isn’t a new idea, it is based on Schnews in the UK and
fax spammers of the 90’s. The idea is to use people’s
existing printers and copy machines for a radically decentralized
printing and distribution network. This idea will also compliment
existing anarchist papers, pamphlets, zines and flyers.

The idea is to make a copy of your print work in the adobe PDF
file type. Many anarchist ideas can be laid out and put into a PDF
file which will make those ideas printable and therefore
accessible to those not looking for anarchist ideas on the internet
or visiting the rad bookstore. The best part is that the printing is
free from any State or workplace printer.

The story of pirate press oly cascadia:

Once upon a time we visited the anarchy archives on the
internet. We thought to ourselves that it was cool that the
anarchy archives existed but thought it was limited in
distribution. We wondered how we could get these ideas out in
our community. We pirated the program adobe PageMaker
within a half hour. We spent some time figuring PageMaker out
and formatted our first pamphlet. Then we realized we needed
abobe acrobat to make PDF files, and pirated that too. (you can
download that program right off their website! adobe Acrobat is
different than Reader) We made our first PDF files.

Then we went to the public library and printed hundreds of
copies for FREE. Since then we’ve discovered most collage
campuses also have free printing. But our experience has been
that the boss’s printer is the most rewarding. We felt that we
weren’t limited by money for once, or lack of content, but by
not having enough time to do all of this ourselves. We realized
anyone could make and print a PDF file and make it accessible to
anyone who can read.

First we started putting our zines and pamphlets in places like rad
book stores, coffeehouses, bars, etc. Then we realized we were
not getting out enough from the “activist scene.” Then
we started dropping our print materials in places like corporate
supermarkets, banks, corporate book stores, the DMV, and any
other place we thought has never seen an anarchist idea.
Basically we put them wherever we went and more. We would
only drop a few copies in each place thinking some manager
would just throw them all away. But it was often the workers
getting their hands on them, and asking us to bring more for
their friends when they would see us.

We also realized any ideas we wanted to publish were open
game. We don’t care if you are selling your ideas (although
that does reflect badly on your ideas), but we will pirate the shit
out of you if we think your ideas are worth our time and effort.
We are 100% against any restriction to the expression of ideas.
And we have learned a lot since we took this attitude.

We can’t say that we haven’t run into difficulties. PDF
files tend to make pictures a lot darker than normal, and there are
font problems as well (must use very basic fonts or use pictures).
PDF files are far from perfect and hopefully someone will develop
a better program in the future. But it is the best file format we
know of for instant printing (email us with any better suggestions
at piratepress@graffiti.net).

We ask you to join this printing revolution by making a copy of
your print materials in PDF form for accessible and decentralized
printing. We can share these ideas without having to pay
hundreds of dollars in printing costs. You can check out some of
the stuff we have done recently at http://olymedia.mahost.org.
We recently formatted “Making Anarchist Revolution
Possible” by Arthur J Miller and “The Death of Neil
Roberts” by anarchists in New Zealand. What, you’ve
never heard of Neil Roberts? Well neither did we until we
embarked on this project.

So we are not asking for your goddamned money or really
anything else of you. We are only trying to expose people to
another way of spreading ideas into the hands of people who
have no idea what anarchy is.

With love, pirate press Oly cascadia
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