March 2023 – Historical Seditions

West Coast Historical Anarchist Media in Print and Online

Newspapers were first published under the black flag on the Pacific Coast over 130 years ago. Blogs, podcasts, and zine distros carry on that work today.

This incomplete list of digitized anarchist publications from the colonized west of the so-called united states makes accessible that long history of insurgent media. Anarchists seeking inspirations and warnings from the past will hopefully find it useful.

Newspapers and magazines from the late-19th and early 20^th century chronicle everyday organizing and insurrectionary moments during an era when the West Coast was a major node in a globe-spanning anti-colonial, anti-capitalist anarchist movement. Papers published in several languages from Los Angeles to San Francisco, Portland to Home, Washington were backbones of local networks, sometimes attracting global attention. The various publications below are available in various formats, from PDFs of individual issues to searchable web tools.

There is a dearth of publications from the 1940s until the 1960s; not unexpected given the lull of anarchistic movements in these decades. The revival came in the form of independent and often diy bulletins and newsletters. The 70s witnessed a small proliferation of publications from clandestine prison papers to anarchist comic books to the birth of zine culture.

With the rise of the internet, Indymedia became an early hub building on connections established at the 1999 WTO in Seattle. A network of frequently anonymous, sometimes submission-driven anarchist blogs proliferated in the years that followed. Some of these blogs are still active today, but many old sites remain live and are valuable resources for the interested. There was also several anarchist magazines and newspapers published in Seattle and Tacoma during the late 2000s and 2010s with digitized copies available for reading.

There are undoubtedly publications missing from this list. Old periodicals become lost to time or collect dust in archives or on microfilm. Vibrant anonymous blogs become dead links, occasionally accessible in limited form on the Wayback Machine. One aim of Historical Seditions is to seek out and preserve these. More digitized historic newspapers will be added to our site in the future, and we are always on the hunt for forgotten URLs and PDFs. If you have leads to expand this list, contact us at historicalseditions [at] riseup [dot] net.

A growing, global list of digitized anarchist publications is available at lidiap.ficedl.info

Digitized by Historical Seditions

The Beacon

Kakumei/The Revolution

Free Society & The Firebrand

Storming Heaven

Enfant Terrible

Many more coming soon!

So-Called PNW

The Firebrand – Portland (Or.), 1895-1897

vol. 1, nos. 1, 8, 10, 12-15, 17-22, 24-25, 27-47, 49-52
vol. 2, nos. 2-8, 10-16, 18-19, 21-24, 27, 30-32, 34-52
vol. 3, nos. 1-34

vol. 1, nos. 1, 42
vol. 2, nos. 31-32, 34-45, 47-52
vol. 3, nos. 1-34

Mirror reduced

Discontent – Home (Wash.), 1898-1902

vol. 1, nos. 5, 10, 27, 38, 43, 45, 49-50
vol. 2, nos. 2, 5, 7, 10-14, 43, 48-52
vol. 3, nos. 2-12, 14-20, 22-23, 25-28, 30-43, 46-52
vol. 4, nos. 2-4, 6-13, 15-19, 21-23, 25-31

Clothed with the Sun – Home (Wash.), 1900-1904

vol. 3, nos. 3, 10

vol. 1, nos. 2-3, 10-12

vol. 2, nos. 1-12

vol. 3, nos. 1,3,10

The Demonstrator – Home (Wash.), 1903-1908?

vol. 1, nos. 1-25, 27-31

nos. 1-142

The Industrial Worker – Spokane, Seattle, 1909-1931

vol. 1 – vol. 5

The Agitator – Home (Wash.), 1910-1912

Complete Set

Hammerslag – Seattle, 1911-1912

nos. 1-2, 4

Why? – Tacoma, 1913-1914

Complete Set

Mirror

The Dawn – Seattle, 1922-?

vol. 1 nos. 1-8

The Seattle Group Bulletins – Seattle, 1965-1971

no. 1-60 text only

Original Scans

Lilith – Seattle, 1968-1970

nos. 1-3

Earth and Fire – Vancouver, 1972

nos. 1, 2

Revolutionary Anarchist – 1973-?

no. 3

Open Road – Vancouver, 1976-1990

Complete Set

Mirror

Anarchist Black Dragon – Walla Walla, 1978-1983

nos. 2-6, special issue, 8-11

British Columbia’s blackout – Vancouver, 1978-1984?

nos. 1-4, 6, 66, 74-75, 77, 79, 82-85, 91, 109, 117

The Spark: A Newsletter of Contemporary Anarchist Thought – Port Townsend, 1982-1984

nos. 1-5

Ecomedia – Vancouver, 1988-1991?

nos. 1-2, 4-6

nos. 12-21, 23-39, 41-51, 54-69, 72-76, 78-81, 83, 85, 87-92, 94-100

The Insurgent – Eugene, 1991-Present

2010-present issues

New World Disorder – Tacoma, 1992

no. 1

Spontaneous Combustion – Seattle and Portland, 1992

no. 1

NWAC Northwest Anarchist Collective – Seattle, 1992-1993?

nos. 1-2

Anti-Power – Seattle, 1993

no. 1

Black Autonomy: A Journal of Anarchism and Black Revolution – 1994-1997

v. 1 nos. 1-5

v. 2 no. 5

v. 3 nos. 1, 3-5

Crimethinc – Olympia and Elsewhere, 1996-Present

Legacy Article Search: crimethinc.com/library

Parascope – Seattle, 1999?-2000?

no. 4

Indymedia – Seattle, 1999-2013 Portland, 2000-2020

Seattle Wayback Machine

Portland Wayback Machine

Green Anarchy – Eugene, 2000-2008

nos. 5, 7
nos. 6-25

Face to Face with the Enemy – Vancouver, 2004-2007?

facetofacewiththeenemy.wordpress.com

Rad Dad – Portland, 2005-2013

no. 20

Unfinished Business – Portland, 2005

no. 3

A Murder of Crows – Seattle, 2006-2007

nos. 1-2

Prisoner’s Dillema – Seattle, 2006-?

no. 1

CrimethInc. Worker Bulletin – Olympia, 2007

no. 47
no. 47/74

Wii’nimkiikaa – 2007-2010

wiinimkiikaa.wordpress.com

Aint No Party Like a West Coast Party – Olympia, 2008

no. 1

Intersections – Portland and Tacoma, 2008-2009

nos. 1, 4, 5

Pink and Black Attack – Olympia, 2008-2010

nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Vancouver Anarchist Online Archive – Vancouver, 2009-2010

vanarchive.wordpress.com

The Rebel – Tacoma, 2009

no. 1

Autonomy//253 – Tacoma, 2010-2011

autonomy253.wordpress.com

Magazine Issue 3

nos. 1-5

Lunaria Press – Tacoma, 2010-2011

lunariapress.blogspot.com

Unmanageable Outlaws – 2010-2011

amiableoutlaws.wordpress.com

Continual War – 2010-2012

2010-2011 continualwar.wordpress.com

2011-2012 continwar.noblogs.org

Autonomy Acres – Rural PNW, 2010-2015

autonomyacres.wordpress.com

Tides of Flame – Seattle, 2011-2012

Complete Set

Puget Sound Anarchists – 2011-Present

PugetSoundAnarchists.org (Current Site, 2014-Present)

Wayback Machine (2011-2013)

Warrior Publications – Occupied Coast Salish Territory, Vancouver BC, 2011-Present

warriorpublications.wordpress.com

Gray Coast – Pacific Northwest, 2011-2013

greycoast.wordpress.com

Portland Occupier – Portland, 2011-Present

portlandoccupier.org

BCBlackOut – So-Called British Columbia, 2011-Present

bcblackout.wordpress.com

(A) Wild Harbor – Aberdeen, 2012

awildharbor.wordpress.com

Seattle Free Press – Seattle, 2012-2015

Wayback Machine (2012-2015)

Anarres Press – Seattle, 2013-2015?

anarrespress.wordpress.com

Storming Heaven – Seattle, 2013-2015

nos. 2-6

Warzone Distro – Chicago, Portland, elsewhere – 2013 – Present

warzonedistro.noblogs.org

Outside Agitator (206) – Seattle, 2015-2016

nos. 1-2

Blog Wayback Machine (2015-2016)

Black and Green Review – Salem, 2015-2018

no. 1

The Transmetropolitan Review – Seattle, 2015-2018 (Magazine), 2015-Present (Blog)

nos. 1-6, 7, 8

thetransmetropolitanreview.wordpress.com

Wreck – Vancouver, 2015-2016

Complete Set

Salish Sea Black Autonomists – Olympia, 2017-2020

blackautonomynetwork.noblogs.org

1312press – Seattle, 2018?-Present

Published Zines – 1312press.noblogs.org/1312-published-titles

Rose City Counter-Info – Portland, 2020-Present

rosecitycounterinfo.noblogs.org/

PNW Youth Liberation Front – 2020-2021

pnwylf.noblogs.org/

youthliberation.noblogs.org/

no more city – Vancouver, 2020-2022

2020-20201 Issues – nomore.city/archive

Fugitive Distro – Olympia, 2021-Present

autistici.org/fugitivedistro

Rose City Radical – Portland, 2021-2022

nos. 1-4 rosecityradical.com/past-issues

Sabot Media – Aberdeen, 2021-Present

Blog

Black Cat Distro Zines

The Communique Newsletter nos. 1-3

Creeker – Fairy Creek, Vancouver Island, 2021-Present

vol. 1-4

BC Counter-Information – so-called British Columbia, 2022-Present

bccounterinfo.org

The Occupied West

The Beacon – San Francisco, 1889-1891

vol. 1, nos. 12-13, 15-17
vol. 2, nos. 1-2, 6-8, 18

Egoism – San Francisco, 1890-1897

vol. 1
vol. 2
vol. 3, nos. 1, 18, 23
vol. 4, nos 1-2

Enfant Terrible – San Francisco, 1891-92

nos. 3, 6

Secolo Nuovo – San Francisco, 1894-1906

vol. 7 no. 17

vol. 9 no. 26

Free Society (Sucessor of Portland’s The Firebrand) – San Francisco/Chicago, 1897-1904

vol. 4, no. 1
vol. 5, nos. 31, 34-35, 39-41, 48
vol. 6, nos. 7-21, 24-26, 28-33, 35-58
vol. 7, nos. 1-3, 5, 8, 14-15, 31, 36
vol. 9, nos. 1-52
vol. 10, nos. 19-20, 33, 38, 42, 52
vol. 10b, nos. 1-3, 7-8

Mirror vol. 9
vol. 10, no. 20

Regeneración – Los Angeles and elsewhere, 1900-1901, 1904-1906, 1910-1918

Complete Set

La Protesta Umana – San Francisco and Chicago, 1900-1905

1902-1903

Kakumei/The Revolution – Berkeley, 1906-1907

no. 1

Revolución – Los Angeles, 1907-1908

nos. 1-4, 6-11, 13-17, 19-29

Regeneración. Sezione Italiana – Los Angeles, 1911

Complete Set

Hindustan Ghadar – San Francisco, 1913-192?

Assorted 1913-1917 issues

The Blast – San Francisco, 1916-1917

Complete Set

Man! – San Francisco, 1933-1940

vol. 3, no. 7/8

Now & After – San Francisco, 1977-1978

no. 1

Anarchy Comics – San Francisco, 1978-1987

Complete Set

Slingshot – Berkeley, 1988-Present

nos. 58-137

Anarchist Labor Bulletin – San Francisco (Calif.), 1989?-1990?

nos. 18-19

Willful Disobedience – Los Angeles, 1996-2006

vol. 3, no. 5
vol. 5, nos. 1-2

Ignite! – Denver, 2011-2012

Complete Set

Black Flag – Los Angeles, 2012-2016

Complete Set

Black Seed – Berkeley, 2014 – Present

nos. 1-6

It’s Going Down – Bay Area and Elsewhere, 2015-Present

itsgoingdown.org

2015/Old Legacy Articles via Wayback Machine

Winter-Spring 2016 Print Compilation

Spring 2017 Print Compilation

Header of Kakumei Newspaper

English header of Kakumei Newspaper, "The Revolution"

Berkeley, California’s Japanese Anarchist Newspaper

Kakumei_1_12-20-1906

The San Francisco Bay Area was a central node in a globe-spanning, empire-challenging anarchist movement in the first years of the 20^th century. Perhaps the most prominent Japanese anarchist during these years was journalist Kōtoku Shūsui. When Kōtoku’s set foot in San Francisco in November, 1905, his radical conscience had been developing for years. His 1901 book Imperialism: Monster of the Twentieth Century remains a seminal early condemnation of global imperialism. A couple years later he helped launch the Heimin Shinbun in Tokyo, a socialist anti-war daily newspaper. Kōtoku’s vocal opposition to the Russo-Japanese war in the pages of the Heimin Shinbun led to his imprisonment and the paper’s shuttering.

While incarcerated, Kōtoku struck up a correspondence with San Francisco-based Anarchist Albert Johnson. Upon release Kōtoku entered a short self-exile by crossing the Pacific to California. In California, Kōtoku’s contacts with the Industrial Workers of the World and experiences with grassroots mutual aid in the wake of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake made him a convinced anarchist.

Kōtoku also struck up a relationship with local Japanese migrants. A former colleague, Shigeki Oka, was involved in the local branch of the Heiminsha, the organization that had published the Heimin Shinbun. Before Kōtoku returned to Japan in June, 1906, he brought many of these new contacts together to form a Social Revolutionary Party. The initial membership counted 52 names, most from the nearby Bay area cities but also including contacts in Chicago, Boston, and New York.

The Social Revolutionary Party’s members soon launched a paper in Berkeley: Kakumei, or Revolution in English. Its first issue has been preserved in the University of California, Berkeley library and is now made available as a digitized copy. The first page of the eight-page paper contained English-language articles directed toward the broader radical movement, while the remainder was written in Japanese.

The English articles offered an introduction to the emerging Japanese Anarchist movement. As a solution the increasingly brutal poverty faced by many under capitalism, Kakumei clearly rejected “the trifiling legislation which the capitalist class may from time to time flink to the workers” as being “about as effective as the tiny stream from a baby’s water-gun thrown in a raging fire.” Instead, Kakumei clearly called for “the overthrow of Mikado, King, President as representing the Capitalist Class as soon as possible, and we do not hesitate as to the means.”¹

The paper also spoke to the “ignorance of the white fellow workers as to the actual interests of the working class the world over.” 1907 was a high-point for racist exclusion movements in California. The mayor of San Francisco, Eugene Schmitz, was a Musician’s Union labor leader who was a prominent figure in the Japanese-Korean Exclusion League. That latter body would morph into the Asiatic Exclusion League in 1907, initiating branches in many white settler-colonial cities along the Pacific Rim. Kakumei argued that the economic troubles their “foolish white fellow workers” often blamed on Japanese laborers was in fact the fault of capital. The only solution was the classic motto, “Working Men of All Countries Unite!”²

Though Kakumei was ultimately short-lived, its contributors played a significant role in the trans-pacific anarchist movement of the years to follow. Tetsugoro Takeuchi, who had written an article suggesting the American president might be assassinated, was forced to move to Fresno. There he helped organize thousands of farmworkers into the Japanese Fresno Federation of Labor. Five thousand of them struck in 1908 with the support of Italian and Mexican IWW members. Takeguchi also published Rodo (Labor) as the organ of the Japanese Fresno Federation of Labor. Another founding member of the Social Revolutionary Party was Iwasa Sakutarō, who became a lifelong anarchist-communist until his death in 1967.

Month: March 2023

West Coast Historical Anarchist Media in Print and Online

Digitized by Historical Seditions

So-Called PNW

The Occupied West

Kakumei/Revolution (1906) Digitized

Berkeley, California’s Japanese Anarchist Newspaper