AK Press is a worker-managed,

independent publisher A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. However, when a distinction ...

and book distributor that specializes in publishing books about

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

and the radical left. Operated out of

Chico, California Chico ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "little") is the most populous city in Butte County, California, United States. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 101,475 in the 2020 United Sta ...

, United States, with a branch in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland, the company is collectively owned.

History

AK was founded in

Stirling Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, by Ramsey Kanaan in 1987 as a small mail-order distribution outlet, eventually expanding into independent publishing and moving the Scotland base of operations to

Edinburgh, Scotland Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, and later opening a US base of operations in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

. The press was named for Kanaan's mother, Ann Kanaan. Kanaan and several other members of AK Press left in 2007 to form PM Press. After operating out of the Bay Area for decades, in March 2015, a deadly fire at a warehouse complex in West Oakland, California, damaged AK Press's warehouse and prompted the press to relocate to their present base in Chico. In 2020, AK Press joined as a founding member of the Radical Publishers' Alliance, a group of politically oriented book publishers and magazines around the world.

Operations

AK Press is organized as a collective, akin to a

workers' co-operative A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which management is elected by ...

. The press is owned by all members of the collective, works without bosses or

hierarchy A hierarchy (from Ancient Greek, Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy ...

, and uses collective decision-making processes, following anarchist principles. Works published by AK Press include classic anarchist texts by

Peter Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism. Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, Kropotkin attended the Page Corps and later s ...

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, ; ; 1809 – 19 January 1865) was a French anarchist, socialist, philosopher, and economist who founded mutualist philosophy and is considered by many to be the "father of anarchism". He was the first person to ca ...

Errico Malatesta Errico Malatesta (4 December 1853 – 22 July 1932) was an Italian anarchist propagandist, theorist and revolutionary socialist. He edited several radical newspapers and spent much of his life exiled and imprisoned, having been jailed and expel ...

Emma Goldman Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born Anarchism, anarchist revolutionary, political activist, and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europ ...

, Alexander Berkman, and Voltairine de Cleyre, as well books on the

history of anarchism According to different scholars, the history of anarchism either goes back to ancient and prehistoric Ideology, ideologies and Social structure, social structures, or begins in the 19th century as a formal movement. As scholars and anarchist p ...

and of anarchist struggles like the Spanish Revolution,

Nestor Makhno Nestor Ivanovych Makhno (, ; 7 November 1888 – 25 July 1934), also known as Bat'ko Makhno ( , ), was a Ukrainians, Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary and the commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine during the Ukrainian War o ...

and the

Makhnovshchina The Makhnovshchina (, ) was a Political movement#Mass movements, mass movement to establish anarchist communism in southern Ukraine, southern and eastern Ukraine during the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917–1921. Named after Nestor Makhno, ...

. They also publish on topics related to ongoing

anti-fascism Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

and contemporary anarchism, such as

prison abolition The police and prison abolition movement is a political movement, mostly active in the United States, that advocates replacing policing and prison system with other systems of public safety. Police and prison abolitionists believe that policing a ...

, the

environmental movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement) is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create sustainable living. In its recognition of humanity a ...

anti-capitalism Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists seek to combat the worst effects of capitalism and to eventually replace capitalism with an alternati ...

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, and

anti-racism Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...

. Noted authors include

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

Murray Bookchin Murray Bookchin (; January 14, 1921 – July 30, 2006) was an American social theorist, author, orator, historian, and political philosopher. Influenced by G. W. F. Hegel, Karl Marx, and Peter Kropotkin, he was a pioneer in the environmental ...

David Graeber David Rolfe Graeber (; February 12, 1961 – September 2, 2020) was an American and British anthropologist, Left-wing politics, left-wing and anarchism, anarchist social and political activist. His influential work in Social anthropology, social ...

, and

Harsha Walia Harsha Walia is a Canadian activist and writer based in Vancouver. She has been involved with No one is illegal, the February 14 Women's Memorial March Committee, the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, and several Downtown Eastside housing ju ...

. AK Press regularly publishes in collaboration with the Institute for Anarchist Studies, the

Kate Sharpley Library The Kate Sharpley Library (KSL) is a library dedicated to anarchist texts and history. Started in 1979 and reorganized in 1991, it currently holds around ten thousand English language volumes, pamphlets and periodicals in its archive. __NOTOC__ N ...

, and World War 3 Illustrated. They also publish the Emergent Strategy Series, edited by adrienne maree brown and inspired by her book of the same name, including books by

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

Black feminists Alexis Pauline Gumbs and Alexis de Veaux. Their Black Dawn series is noted for releasing

speculative fiction Speculative fiction is an umbrella term, umbrella genre of fiction that encompasses all the subgenres that depart from Realism (arts), realism, or strictly imitating everyday reality, instead presenting fantastical, supernatural, futuristic, or ...

with anarchist and political themes, including books by

Margaret Killjoy Margaret Killjoy is an American author, musician, and podcast host. She is best known for her speculative fiction in the fantasy and folk horror genres, in particular for her two-book Danielle Cain series. Killjoy is involved in several musical p ...

and adrienne maree brown, among others. In both the US and UK, the business tables at anarchist bookfairs, conferences, activist gatherings, and

literary festivals A literary festival, also known as a book festival or writers' festival, is a regular gathering of writers and readers, typically on an annual basis in a particular city. A literary festival usually features a variety of presentations and readings ...

. The company also sells clothing,

buttons A button is a fastener that joins two pieces of fabric together by slipping through a loop or by sliding through a buttonhole. In modern clothing and fashion design, buttons are commonly made of plastic but also may be made of metal, wood, o ...

, stickers, and various other related items.

References

External links

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AK Press UK
{{Authority control Anarchist organizations in the United States Anarchism in California Anarchist publishing companies Anarchist collectives Political book publishing companies Publishing collectives Small press publishing companies Worker cooperatives of the United States Worker cooperatives Book publishing companies based in California Book publishing companies of Scotland Companies based in Chico, California Publishing companies established in 1987

History

Operations

See also

References

Further reading

External links