The Transmetropolitan Review #5

From The Transmetropolitan Review
Read and Print Here

The following issue contains:

• What is Anarchism?
• Fear & Loathing in the Valley of the Moon: an update on the struggle to save Snoqualmie Falls
• Capitalism is a War Machine
•  The Olympia Commune and the Blockade of the Port

In keeping with anarchist tradition, our paper has fallen out of circulation over the past few months. In large part this was due to precarity, displacement, and lack of resources. However, now that all of that’s been sorted, we return with our new issue. Physical copies of this paper have been distributed in Seattle and Olympia and we encourage all interested parties in Washington State to print the attached PDF and distribute it in their own neighborhoods and towns.

Printed newspapers fill an important role in anarchist praxis and have been in existence since anarchism became a coherent movement. For example, after the Great Earthquake of 1906 leveled his San Francisco printshop, an anarchist named Eugene Travaglio eventually drifted into the Pacific Northwest. As his third wife Esther Travaglio recounted to Paul Avrich:

“[Eugene] became foreman in the printing shop of The Pacific Monthly [in Portland], edited by C.E.S. Wood. Soon afterwards, he moved to Tacoma and started his journal Why? He often visited the Home Colony [in Home, Washington] and was fluent in Esperanto, which I think he may have learned at Home. His first wife, Frankie, moved up to Home to be near him, and [their daughter] Leah married Ray LaVene at Home. He loved Home and visited the place often. In Tacoma Gene worked at night and then walked home about four miles. He became foreman at the Wobbly print shop. He knew Sam Hammersmark and the other anarchists and Wobblies well. Gene moved up to Seattle and started a small print shop called the Olympic Press. That’s where I met him in 1924.”

In 2017, an effective anarchist print shop requires no more than $500.00 to establish. A double-sided color printer with enough toner for 4000 copies will cost no more than this. After that the only costs are electricity and toner. Printing is no longer specialized as it was in 1906. While the predominance of digital media might deter some anarchist from engaging in the classical practice, we assure you that it is well worth it. Never underestimate the power of the printed word in this time of emptiness and horror. Speak what you believe clearly and at every prompting. Write it on paper, write it on walls, spread the great idea of anarchism across this blighted and collapsing state. There has never been a more important time than now.

Sincerely,

The editors