The Detroit Printing Co-op

The Politics of the Joy of Printing

Danielle Aubert Contents

10 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 114 RADICAL AMERICA 178 COMMUNITY AND FRIENDS Anti-Semitism and the Beirut Pogrom ; 1970–75 1971–76 F. Perlman, On the Continuing Appeal of Nationalism ; F. Perlman, The Strait ; 12 INTRODUCTION: Radical America vol. 4 no. 2 through Lookin’ In ; Rebels’ Voice ; 1971 and 1972 L. Perlman, Having Little, Being Much THE DETROIT PRINTING CO-OP vol. 9 ; D. Montgomery, What’s Happening Cass-Trumbull Community Calendars ; to the American Worker ; d. a. levy, riverrun ; ETR Gang, To Serve the Rich ; Stone Sarcophagus ; d. a. levy, To Be a Wildcat ; ETR Gang, Ms. Interview: Gail 26 FREDY PERLMAN IN NEW YORK Discrepancy in Cleveland ; D. Lourie, Lies ; Garrot, Big City Cop ; Fuck Authority 1961–62 T. L. Kryss, New Majiks ; American Labor poster ; A. Franklin, D. Watson, Fli-back History pamphlets F. Perlman, The New Freedom: Corporate Capitalism ; F. Perlman, Plunder 198 BEWICK/ED 132 SITUATIONISTS AND THE CO-OP 1971–80 1970–73 34 THE BLACK & RED GANG M. Glaberman, Union Committeemen and KALAMAZOO G. Debord, Society of the Spectacle ; Wildcat Strikes ; P. Romano, R. Stone, The 1968–69 R. Vaneigem, The Revolution of Daily American Worker ; C. L. R. James, Modern Life (excerpt) ; To Nonsubscribers of Politics ; M. Glaberman, Punching Out ; Black & Red nos. 1–6½ ; The Ten Radical America ; SI, On the Poverty K. Marx, A Worker’s Inquiry ; C. L. R. James, Commandments ; Initiation Rites for of Student Life Facing Reality ; C. L. R. James, Mariners, Students and Professors ; F. Perlman, Renegades and Castaways ; M. Glaberman, I Accuse This University of Terror and Wartime Strikes Violence ; R. Gregoire, F. Perlman, Worker- 148 BLACK STAR Student Action Committees: Paris May 1970–72 ’68 ; L. Lanphear, How I Became an Outside 204 BLACK & RED Agitator ; R. Maier, Observorman J. Forman, The Political Thought 1970–88 of James Forman ; J. Forman, Control, Confl ict, Change ; brochures for Black Star M. Brinton, Bolsheviks and Workers’ 66 THE DETROIT PRINTING CO-OP OPENS Productions ; 1971 Vietnam calendar ; Control ; I. I. Rubin, Essays on Marx’s 1970 US Out of Africa poster Theory of Value ; B. Ehrenreich, D. English, Witches, Midwives and Nurses ; P. Arshinov, M . Glaberman, F. Perlman, M. Ravitz, Who History of the Makhnovist Movement ; Are You? Who Cares? ; Facing Reality, We 162 THE GNOMON Voline, The Unknown Revolution ; S. Van Want Out ; A Child’s Garden of Perverse ; 1970–72 Der Straeten, P. Daufouy, The Counter- P. Allen, F. Gould, Prolegomena ; IWW, Little Revolution in Ireland ; Barrot & Martin, Red Songbook The Gnomon vol. 1 through vol. 3 Eclipse and Re-emergence of the Communist Movement ; J. Camatte, The 74 FREDY PERLMAN AND 170 JUDY CAMPBELL Wandering of Humanity ; M. Brinton, The THE OFFSET PRESS 1971–74 Irrational in Politics ; G. Munis, J. Zerzan, 1969–72 Unions Against Revolution ; Lip and J. Campbell, Free for All ; J. Campbell, My the Self-Managed Counter-Revolution ; F. Perlman, The Reproduction of Daily Torrid Affair With Three Doctors and F. Arcos, Momentos ; J. Peirats, Anarchists Life ; F. Perlman, Birth of a Revolutionary One Research Assistant Cost Me My Job ; in the Spanish Revolution ; A.Anderson, Movement in Yugoslavia ; F. Perlman, The J. Campbell, Open Letter From a White Hungary ’56 ; F. Perlman, Letters of Incoherence of the Intellectual ; M. Velli, Bitch to the Black Youth Who Beat Up On Insurgents ; I. C. O., Poland 1970–71: Manual for Revolutionary Leaders ; The Me and My Friend Capitalism and Class Struggle ; Poland Fetish Speaks 1980–82 ; F. Perlman, Against His- Story, Against Leviathan! ; F. Perlman, The Detroit Printing Co-op

In the fall of 1969, a group of friends active in college and moving to working class manufacturing radical left politics drove from Detroit to Chicago cities where they saw possibility for enacting system to pick up a fifty-year-old Harris offset printing change. Various leftist groups were active in Detroit, press. They had received information that equip- and labor unions were strong. Facing Reality, an ment from a recently closed print shop was for sale. offshoot of the Trostkyist Worker’s Party, had been The friends worked quickly to borrow money, rent a worker-intellectual hub in Detroit from the 1950s. a work space in Southwest Detroit, and arrange The effects of the 1967 rebellion—quelled only transport for the industrial printer. They founded the when the National Guard was called in—were felt Detroit Printing Co-op and declared the equipment widely. The League of Revolutionary Black social property, available for use by anyone who Workers organized in auto factories and some of wished to learn how to operate it and contribute to their members made use of the Co-op equipment. its maintenance. Over the course of the next ten The Republic of New Afrika was founded in Detroit years the Co-op would be the site of production for in 1968, and the city also had a vibrant chapter tens of thousands of leftist books, pamphlets, of the Black Panthers. The underground newspaper posters, and brochures. Fifth Estate was thriving, publishing biweekly The Co-op drew a wide range of people from issues out of their Cass Corridor offices with a across the city, most involved in movement politics. circulation reaching into the tens of thousands. Some of the publications printed over the course Fredy and Lorraine Perlman, founding members of the 1970s include the first English translation of of the Detroit Printing Co-op, were a part of a wave Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle; the Black of radicals who moved to Detroit in the late 1960s Star publication The Political Thought of James seeking to participate in Detroit’s active political Forman; the poetry and art magazine riverrun; five climate. Fredy was born in Czechoslovakia and had years’ worth of issues of Radical America, the immigrated, via Bolivia, to the United States, where journal of the Students for a Democratic Society his family ended up in Kentucky. Lorraine grew (SDS); and Rebel’s Voice, an unofficial newspaper up in Iowa City. They met in New York, where they “Itemized Price Schedule” for the Revolutionary Printing Co-op, a made by high school students. All books published lived for several years, then moved to Belgrade, precursor to the Detroit Printing Co-op, ca. 1969. by Black & Red, the radical left press that Fredy and Yugoslavia. When they returned to the United Lorraine Perlman founded in 1970, were printed at States, they found themselves in Kalamazoo, the Co-op while it was open. Michigan, where Fredy had a two-year teaching Setting up the print shop printed several things there before the Detroit This book is an attempt to collect in one place position at Western Michigan University. The Upon arrival in Detroit, the Perlmans immediately Printing Co-op opened in 1970. the publications printed at the Detroit Printing Perlmans finally made their way to Detroit, which connected with friends at Fifth Estate and an In the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was difficult Co-op. It is unlikely that it is complete, as hundreds was racially and ethnically diverse, inexpensive, and assortment of leftists, including Martin Glaberman to find presses willing to print left publications. of individuals passed through the Co-op and there not too far from Ann Arbor, where Lorraine was of Facing Reality, Jon Supak and Hannah Offset presses had been used commercially for was never any official “management.” However, the enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Ziegellaub, Don Campbell and Judy Campbell, many years by then, and printers started replacing range of printed materials represented here indicate Michigan. Lorraine wrote of Detroit, “In many ways League of Revolutionary Black Workers member their early twentieth-century machines with new a rich and vibrant political world that emanated out this city resembled Belgrade: it was sprawling and Carl Smith, and others. Fifth Estate had typesetting ones. As secondhand offset presses arrived on the of the Co-op building on Michigan Avenue. unpretentious, a melting-pot for arrivals from other equipment and their office was next door to the market, independent groups of radicals were able Detroit in 1969 held palpable revolutionary regions, a place where factory work was held in independently-run Community Print Shoppe, which to acquire them cheaply and set up their own print potential. Radicalized students were dropping out of high regard.”1 housed an offset press. The Perlmans and friends shops. At the same time, typewriters such as the

1 Lorraine Perlman, Having Little, Being Much (Detroit: Black & Red, 1989), p. 56.

12 THE DETROIT PRINTING CO-OP 13 services, with discounted rates for “movement to vocational schools for years to learn how to people and non-profit organizations”: producing operate industrial presses. He was concerned that negatives, preparing offset plates, printing, and while the Detroit friends had noble intentions, they typesetting on Fifth Estate’s IBM Selectric. did not have a clear plan for running a large offset They articulated some of the reasons for forming machine. The press they chose was hulking and a printing co-operative: to provide typesetting and industrial-sized, and printed 22 × 29-inch press printing “without censorship or pressure,” to sheets. At this size, they would face the challenges provide “a means of subsistence for individuals who of getting ink across long rollers, moving unwieldy refuse to accept the bureaucratic organization of a stacks of paper around the print shop, and using capitalist enterprise,” and “to make available a small blowers properly to separate the sheets of paper as stock of means of production to a restless popula- they were fed into the machine.4 tion’s growing needs for self-expression.” They In justifying his decision for getting a larger further explained, printer, Perlman told Marszalek that it would be economical for them—they could gang up more The printing coop [sic] is not its own goal. Attempting pages on a large press sheet, for example.5 Perlman to survive within the capitalist carcass, its activity is was specifically focused on the ability to print restricted by the laws of capitalist commodity books, rather than only flyers and leaflets. There production. But survival within capitalism is not its aim (nor is this activity an efficient way to survive were other groups in Detroit with printing abili- within capitalism). Its aim is to contribute to the ties—notably Black Star, which had a Gestetner junking of the capitalist carcass, and thus of itself as press which they used to print newsletters and an activity which survived within it.3 countless flyers. But the offset press at the Co-op would make it possible for the Perlmans to run While it might be possible to eke out a “means of every aspect of Black & Red, their publishing subsistence” with the equipment made available house—from writing, editing, and layout, to through the cooperative, they did not see it as an printing, binding, and distribution. They could also “efficient way to survive.” more easily print for others—they had already Several of the individuals involved in the begun printing issues of Radical America at the Front and back of the folded “Itemized Price Schedule” for the Revolutionary Printing Cooperative would soon Commmunity Print Shoppe. Revolutionary Printing Co-op, ca. 1969. re-organize into the Detroit Printing Co-op when a They secured a space on the ground floor of a friend of Fredy & Lorraine’s from Chicago, Bernard building in a working class, industrial neighborhood Marszalek, helped them acquire the large Harris at the corner of Vinewood and Michigan Avenue, IBM Selectric Composer were being manufactured. When they first arrived in Detroit, the Perlmans, offset press. Marszalek was a young graphic across from a Cadillac factory. Upstairs from them These used a technology that made it possible to set who were publishing texts as Black & Red, joined designer and activist who had been working at a was REP, which had its own facility. Dozens of type with different fonts, where previously one with individuals from Fifth Estate, the Community print cooperative in Chicago called J. S. Jordan people poured energy into making the Co-op would have had to set type on a letterpress jobbing Print Shoppe, Radical Education Project (REP), and Press, which printed many of the Yippie fliers and functional. A Chicago printer came out to give them printer for a professional look—or settle for setting a printing co-op from Ann Arbor to form what they leaflets that were distributed during the summer of a day of instruction on operating the Harris press. text in Courier on a typewriter. The IBM Selectric called the Revolutionary Printing Co-operative.2 1968 for protests against the Democratic National They also had a manual. A comrade of Carl Smith’s (and competitor products like the Veratype machine) The Perlmans had printed often with REP, the Convention. He introduced the Detroit group to a from the League of Revolutionary Black Workers allowed people to set pages of type much more printing collective for SDS, in Ann Arbor. In the dealer who had a huge warehouse full of second- worked in a large printing establishment. He cheaply. As a result, the late 1960s and 1970s bore summer of 1969 REP had moved their operation hand printing equipment. brought a professional electrician to the Co-op to witness to a mushrooming of the “underground to Detroit. Marszalek encouraged them to choose a smaller wire the machines.6 Fredy Perlman had previous press”—independently printed materials by groups Members of the Revolutionary Printing machine, knowing that running a large offset printer printing experience running a mimeograph copy outside the mainstream. Cooperative drew up an itemized price list of was a big undertaking. People apprenticed or went shop in New York City and working on mid-size

2 of the press he was adjusting. Joel years later, in a letter to a friend, 6 Lorraine Perlman describes Fredy’s welcomed Fredy, gave him a key, a when the Co-op closed down in 1980 L. Perlman 1989, p. 63. fi rst visit to the Community Print ten-minute lesson on darkroom tech- and the Harris Press was passed on Shoppe, “Peter Werbe, Fifth Estate niques and encouraged him to start to a group of young anarchists in stalwart, took Fredy to the adjacent printing.” L. Perlman 1989, p. 59. Ann Arbor, MI. print shop operated by a seven- 3 5 teen-year-old mechanical whiz, Joel Movement Printing and Typesetting, Recollections from Perlman’s visit to Landy. Fredy was impressed by the ca. 1969. Emphasis in the original. Chicago to pick up a printer were tall, skinny teenager and often re- 4 conveyed to the author by Bernard called his fi rst view of Joel crawling Marszalek’s concerns are echoed Marszalek in a conversation on out from under the gears and rollers almost exactly by Perlman himself January 20, 2018.

14 THE DETROIT PRINTING CO-OP 15 offset printers. Other skilled individuals came paper—sometimes coated or uncoated stock, with through the Co-op in the early years and helped oddly textured or colored heavier weight paper for troubleshoot the Harris press as they got to know the covers. its quirks. Marszalek would describe Fredy’s inventive Setting up cameras and a darkroom were critical approach to printing, “[He] came to Chicago with to making the Co-op functional. Lorraine Perlman one of his first color pamphlets and proudly told described Fredy Perlman’s approach to designing myself and my printer partner at J. S. Jordan Press the space: “Fredy read books about darkroom design that he got his press to register pretty well and and drew up plans for adjacent darkrooms, one for managed to mix inks to approximate full color each camera. Then the layout of the rest of the printing. As I remember he used three colors: shop was decided on. With the same meticulous yellow, red and dark blue but not black. He was care he had used on statistical analyses in Yugoslav shocked when we told him that the four-color classrooms, Fredy now used flow charts to deter- process was exactly what he was trying to achieve. mine where to place the equipment, the goal being He had never heard of that before!”10 to avoid moving the paper unnecessarily from the Soon after setting up the Co-op, its users wrote time it was loaded onto the press until it was packed up a set of shared guidelines which established that in boxes at the cutter. (Paper-moving was no trivial no single person or group controlled access to the concern.)”7 equipment: One friend, Judy Campbell, installed plumbing in the darkroom. Another friend helped them acquire The equipment of the Printing Co-op is social an enormous supply of film, plates, and darkroom property. It is and shall be controlled by all supplies—purchased for $500 at the auction of a individuals who need, use and maintain it. bankrupt print shop. Lorraine wrote that a single It is not and shall not be owned or controlled by any lot of panchromatic film lasted them through the individual or group of individuals, whether they claim 1970s, permitting Fredy, “sometimes with Carl to serve, represent, or speak for society, whether they Smith, sometimes with me, to experiment with are elected or self-appointed. color reproduction without thought to expense of supplies.”8 She said of this period at the Co-op, The purpose of the Printing Co-op is to provide “Fredy was exhilarated by all aspects of the new access to printing equipment to all those individuals in the community who desire to express themselves activity … he frequently asserted that never before (on a non-profit basis), with charges made only to had he felt so intellectually stimulated as he was maintain the print shop (rent, utilities, materials, by the challenges and gratifications he found in maintenance of the machinery). mastering the graphic arts equipment and techniques.”9 It is not the purpose of the Printing Co-op to solve the The Harris press only accommodated one metal problem of unemployment, nor to provide business opportunities for enterprising capitalists.11 image plate at a time, so printing multiple colors required that the same sheet of paper pass through There were numerous discussions about the role of the machine once for each color, with the need to wages—and wage labor—as it related to printing. carefully align the page so it registered properly. There were some who would have liked the Co-op They printed on whatever discounted or free paper to provide employment, and others who hoped to that was available to them, often acquiring remain- earn income through the Co-op. But the Perlmans dered stock from other printers or paper distributors. doubted from the beginning that it could ever func- Different print runs make use of different kinds of tion as a commercial enterprise—the equipment

7 10 Ibid., 62. Email from Bernard Marszalek, 8 October 5, 2016. Ibid., 64. 11 9 Rules of the Printing Co-op, 1970. Lorraine Perlman read this state- These guidelines were taped to the wall at the Detroit Printing Co-op. ment at a panel discussion at 9338 Campau Gallery, October 9, 2016.

16 THE DETROIT PRINTING CO-OP 17 working day. Co-op users could contribute to the something was printed once it is out in the world. maintenance of the print shop by bringing in paying One can often find information about the author, work, paying a share of the $800 monthly expenses, publisher, and year of publication. Sometimes or helping on paid projects. This work was different artists, designers, and photographers are credited, from wage labor—people were free to come and but the printer—the person and machine that go and no one was profiting from their work. The physically put ink on paper—typically goes labor that any individual put into working at the unnamed. The Co-op users were intensely aware Co-op on paid projects went directly toward of the physical labor of typesetting and printing. meeting the basic financial demands of the print Black & Red books often include notes about the shop (rent, supplies, debts). labor involved in their production. Users were also expected to schedule use of For the most part, the publications included in equipment, clean up after themselves, and do their this book were printed on the Harris offset press, own ordering and purchasing: “Those who take it though some things may have been printed on one for granted that secretaries, maids, janitors and of two smaller presses that also shared the Co-op’s errand boys ‘will take care of all that for a small fee’ space. The materials printed at the Co-op are iden- would do well to rethink their ‘radicalism’ and to tifiable through the inclusion of the Detroit Printing take a post in a capitalist corporation, where such Co-op’s union label, also called a “bug,” printed behavior is institutionalized.”15 somewhere on an opening or closing page. A union After the Co-op opened, they created a price bug is a small badge that appears on materials list. A note at the top reads, “All payment is made printed at union shops—discreetly placed, they in advance because, not being a capitalist enterprise, usually appear near the edge of the printed area, and the Printing Co-op cannot extend credit, does not include the printer’s shop number. They often read have liquid funds, and does not stockpile inventories “Allied Printing,” an indication that all aspects of of materials.”16 The Co-op rules are printed on the the work—from typesetting to printing to trimming back of the price list along with further explanations and folding—were performed by union labor. about the nature of work at the Co-op, which was Union bugs were first placed on printed material done by “one or several users of the Printing Co-op produced by the International Typographical Union Detroit Printing Co-op price list, ca. 1970. who are willing and able to carry it through compe- (ITU) in the late nineteenth century. These have a tently.” There is no reference to Co-op “members,” precedent in printer’s marks, which have appeared although I use the term sometimes in this book— in books since the late fifteenth century. At the time, people are referred to as “users” of the Co-op. a printer’s mark represented both the publishing was too old, and trying to make the Co-op profitable the equipment and space necessary to get things up People were explicitly discouraged from trying to house and the print shop, which were one and the would limit the flexibility of letting anyone come and running. Lorraine Perlman kept track of the use the Co-op equipment to turn a profit—“a person same place.18 As the work of the typesetter and the in and use it freely.12 Ultimately, the group that first Co-op’s accounts. They had a list of debtors taped to who does work at ‘cut rates’ is not beneficial to the printer became separated from that of the publish- set up the Co-op aimed to make it a place where the wall and recorded who had been paid off. It took Printing Co-op, since such ‘service’ takes away er—one worked with machines and the other participants could engage in printing and simultane- them most of two years to pay back what they owed, sources of the Printing Co-op’s income, and shifts to worked with ideas—printers fell more cleanly into ously resist having their labor transformed into what which they did by collectively taking on paid jobs other users the burden of maintaining the Printing the category of “workers” than “thinkers,” but there Fredy Perlman might call “indifferent activity” for others. After that period, most of the work done Co-op in existence (i.e. exploits their labor).”17 has always been some overlap. undertaken as a means of survival.13 at the Co-op was self-defined by people who bought In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many While profit was never a motive, they did have supplies themselves and contributed to the mainte- Abolish the Wage System / Abolish the State / anarchists were printers, and many printers were bills. It was important for the Co-op to take on nance of the print shop.14 All Power to the Workers anarchists. Political scientist Kathy Ferguson has paying jobs in the first few years in order to settle They calculated that the upkeep of the Co-op A publication’s print origins are not usually written of the centrality of printers in the physical their debts. They had borrowed $5,000 to acquire cost an average of $800 per month, or $30 per identifiable—it’s hard to tell exactly where and social reproduction of the anarchist movement

12 property; it is marketable; it can be a means to earn money. Life becomes money. Records of this surveillance 18 Lorraine Perlman, 9338 Campau sold for a given quantity of money; a means of survival.” are in the Red Squad fi le that the Another descendent of the printer’s panel. labor is indifferent activity; indiffer- 14 Detroit police kept on Fredy and mark is a publisher’s logo. 13 ent to the particular task performed During this time, they were also Lorraine Perlman. F. Perlman, Reproduction of Daily and indifferent to the particular being monitored by the police, who 15 Life (Detroit: Black & Red, 1972 edi- subject to which the task is directed. sat outside the Co-op watching people Rules of the Printing Co-op, 1970. tion), p. 4: “The sold creative power, Digging, printing and carving are come and go. When asked what they 16 or sold daily activity, takes the form different activities, but all three are were doing there, they said they Movement Printing and Typesetting, of labor; labor is a historically spe- labor in capitalist society; labor is knew that a group had acquired a ca. 1969. cifi c form of human activity; labor is simply “earning money.” Living activ- printing press, and they were sus- 17 abstract activity which has only one ity which takes the form of labor is picious that they might be printing Rules of the Printing Co-op.

18 THE DETROIT PRINTING CO-OP 19 Above: printer’s marks for the Revolutionary Printing Cooperative from 1969 (left) and 1970 (right).

had been in the same office in Chicago since the 1920s and the space was full of literature and materials that dated back to those days. Members included older Wobblies who tended toward Above: unions bugs for the IWW print democratic socialism, and younger activists who shops Come!Unity Press and New Detroit Printing Co-op union bug designed by Fredy Perlman, 1970. leaned toward anarchism.23 At some point in the Media Workshop. spring of 1970, Fredy Perlman designed a mark for the Detroit Printing Co-op. The language around the in the United States between 1871 and 1945: even after the new became available.”21 Similarly, bug—“Abolish the wage system / Abolish the state / injury to all,” the Detroit Co-op’s bug directly “Because the technology of publishing required Co-op users had little money and made do with old All power to the workers!”—is part of the preamble commands the reader to act (“Abolish the state!”). many skilled printers, because commercial print equipment. to the IWW constitution. The Perlmans had a copy It eschews cuteness or any romanticizing of what it shops often rejected anarchist materials, and The Revolutionary Printing Cooperative, which of Joyce Kornbluh’s 1964 graphic history of the means to upend the wage system. It isn’t hand- because of a general anarchist reverence for the predated the Detroit Printing Co-op, used two IWW, Rebel Voices, which may have provided drawn—it isn’t something you can do at home— written word, printing was one of the most common different marks, which functioned similarly to a inspiration for the label.24 it is machine made, all caps, insistent.25 occupations of anarchists.”19 In writing about the union bug. The first has the name of the cooperative The Co-op bug communicates both information role of the printer in the development of socialism, encircling a red and black flag. It appears on at least about the print shop and an idea for system change. Printing at the Co-op French philosopher Régis Debray describes the two publications and their 1969 price list. The two The IWW is a radical union, and in calling for the The Harris offset press was an enormous, ancient, printer as “quintessentially a ‘worker intellectual or flags represent anarchism (black) and communism abolition of the state and the wage system, the cast-iron machine with wooden wheels. One Co-op an intellectual worker,’ the very ideal of that human (red). They began using an actual union mark when Co-op bug demonstrates the ways in which the aims user, Ralph Franklin, recalled, “There were open type who would become the pivot of socialism: several Co-op users became dues-paying members of the IWW (e.g., “One Big Union”) are different gears that you were certain would grab your elbow ‘the conscious proletarian.’”20 of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World). A from traditional labor unions that seek primarily to at some point.” (At least one person, Peter Allen, While the Perlmans did not explicitly identify as version, with the words Revolutionary Printing negotiate fair wages and working conditions for the did get his shirt caught in the gears while printing anarchists or socialists (or any “-ist,” for that Cooperative encircling the IWW logo, appears on workers they represent. and narrowly avoided serious injury.) In addition to matter), they followed in the tradition of radical left some publications from early 1970.22 Unlike some other IWW union bugs from this the large Harris press, the Co-op had a smaller printers. As Ferguson writes, the anarchists of the In 1968, Fredy and Lorraine Perlman had visited time period, such as New York City’s hand-drawn Davidson 863 two-cylinder offset press that could late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had the IWW headquarters in Chicago, where they were badge for Come!Unity Press (with the tagline print 16 × 18 inches and a smaller Multilith 1250 “less money to spend on new technology, and thus impressed with the level of activity and engage- “Survival by Sharing”) or even the Oberlin, Ohio offset duplicator that could do 11 × 14 inches, a were more likely to stick with the older machines, ment. The Wobblies, as IWW members are called, New Media Workshop’s “An injury to one is an large sheet folder for folding book signatures, a

19 was one of the tramp printers socialism and anarchism (which were 22 stamps into our little red membership is the one that appears on the Kathy E. Ferguson, “Anarchist who crisscrossed the U.S., working often considered interchangeable) to This mark was used on Radical books.” L. Perlman 1989, p. 64. Wikipedia page for “union bugs.” Printers: Material Circuits of as a freelance artisan as well as working class readers.” Ferguson America vol. 4, nos. 2 and 3 (Feb. 24 A typical union bug does not call Politics” Political Theory 42, 4 organizing unions and spreading 2014, p. 392. and Apr. 1970), A Child’s Garden of Conversation with Lorraine Perlman, for the abolition of wage labor or (August 2014), p. 393. One example anarchist practices, before later set- 20 Perverse (ca. 1970), and The Gnomon September 19, 2015. Joyce Kornbluh, the state. of an anarchist printer is Joseph tling in his home town of Detroit. Régis Debray, “Socialism: A Life- (June 1970). Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology Labadie. Ferguson writes, “Labadie, Labadie printed a series of labor Cycle,” New Left Review 46 (July– 23 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan whose collection of anarchist papers and wrote articles and verse August 2007). Conversation with Bernard Marszalek, Press, 1964). materials forms the basis of the for anarchist journals. He and his 21 January 20, 2018. Lorraine wrote in 25 University of Michigan archive of colleague Judson Grennell printed Ferguson 2014, p. 396. Having Little, Being Much, “for Ironically, given how unusual it is, radical literature bearing his name, over 200,000 pamphlets explaining several years we pasted the dues the Detroit Printing Co-op mark

20 THE DETROIT PRINTING CO-OP 21 This page and opposite: two of very few photos taken inside the Peter Werbe and Colleen Jenson. Color separations for a poster are Detroit Printing Co-op. Above: Lorraine and Fredy Perlman. visible on the wall behind Fredy and Lorraine Perlman.

stitcher for stapling the spine of smaller publica- fly-wheel would start going off, you’d pull up on something that was bold, or italic. If we didn’t want negatives, and an arc-light plate burner. The switch tions, and a Harris Seybold paper cutter. In 1973, one lever and push down to actually make the cut, to re-type the whole thing again we would type out for the light was inside the darkroom, and whenever they acquired a hot glue perfect binding machine and at that time I could barely work it, because I the one line, cut it very small, put it on a light table so someone needed to use it, they’d shout, “Lights!” which enabled them to print thicker volumes.26 didn’t have the weight to step down and get the you could see through it, cut the other type, and before flipping the switch, to give people time to 27 replace it. You would have little bits of paper Bill Bryce spent a fair amount of time at the leverage and the height to do it.” everywhere. Sometimes you might have gotten it laid turn away so they weren’t blinded by the brightness. Co-op with his partner, Elaine Crawford. They out and ready to go to the printer, and a word had Ideally there were two people operating the lights, mostly used the Multilith 1250, which was easier to Typesetting fallen off. And then you had to find it. It was a because carbon from the arc-lights could fall on the use than the Davidson, but not without its own The Co-op did not have typesetting equipment. laborious method of doing things, but it was always a floor and cause a fire.31 hazards. One night Crawford’s ponytail was caught Many of the publications were typeset at Fifth great time.29 The Co-op equipment did not work well for in the Multilith, and she was rescued by the same Estate’s offices on W. Warren Avenue.28 To lay out a printing newspapers, though Shevin printed a upstairs neighbor who had saved Peter Allen from page, a person would type out text then work at a Carl Smith, and sometimes Lorraine Perlman, student paper there on sheet-fed pages. High- the Harris press. light table to line it up on a sheet of non-reproduc- typeset texts at the Black Star offices on Fenkell volume newspaper printing requires a rotary press, Stewart Shevin was a young high schooler when ing blue graph paper. The table was back-lit which Avenue. Black Star had modern equipment which so underground and alternative papers like Fifth he began going to the Co-op. He learned all the made the grid lines visible. Once the pages were dramatically cut down on the amount of time it Estate were printed elsewhere. Hamish Sinclair, stages of typesetting and printing, but was wary of made up, they were taken to the Co-op to be took to set pages of type. Around 1975, Fredy and who had known Fredy Perlman in New York City, the final stage: cutting. If you hadn’t participated in photographed on a large flat-bed camera to produce Lorraine began laying out text at Dumont Press moved to Detroit and worked at the Co-op. He and a book’s production, it was generally understood a film negative. The image was then transferred Graphix, a typesetting and printing collective in his comrades published the newspaper r. p. m. that you should not offer to cut the books and right-reading to a metal plate which would be Kitchener, Ontario. Black & Red publications (revolutions per minute), which was directed to inadvertently ruin the job. Furthermore, for affixed to the press. Ralph Franklin said that printed at Dumont are identifiable through their use factory workers. At first, they thought they might fifteen-year-old Shevin, the cutter was hard to use. sometimes, of the typeface Melior.30 print it at the Co-op, but ended up working with a It “had a huge fly-wheel on it, a clutch mechanism you’d have a long galley and in the middle of a The Co-op had a lithographic camera attached commercial printer, though they still made use of and a safety. You’d get the thing going, the paragraph there might be a mistake—or you wanted to the darkroom, light tables for working with the Co-op’s light tables and darkroom.32

26 26 contributed from the audience. I’m trying to sleep!’ And it was text was onerous. They would fi rst 31 Ironically, given how unusual it is, Black & Red published a 720-page Franklin later described his fi rst Bryce, sleeping in one of the paper type out the text at column width Stewart Shevin, 9338 Campau panel, the Detroit Printing Co-op mark book in 1975 and an 830-page encounter with Bryce: “[A friend bins.” (or trim it to column width). Then and Ralph Franklin email, July 3, is the one that appears on the novel the following year. and I] walked into the Print Co-op 28 they would determine how much 2019. There was a metal plate on the Wikipedia page for “union bugs.” 27 early one morning and it was dark, Fifth Estate was founded in 1965 space was left at the end of each fl oor below the arc lights to make it A typical union bug does not call These anecdotes about the Co-op there was nobody there. We turned by Harry Ovshinsky, and by 1970 line, then re-type the text with the less of a fi re hazard. for the abolition of wage labor or were recounted during the 9338 the lights on, and we’re laughing and was a widely circulated biweekly leftover space redistributed within 32 the state. Campau Gallery panel that inclu- joking, doing some of the camera underground newspaper. each line of text. L. Perlman 1989, p. 67. ded John Grant, Ralph Franklin, work, and I remember hearing this 29 30 Lorraine Perlman, Stewart Shevin, voice from the back of the Print Ralph Franklin, 9338 Campau panel. More on Black Star, p. 148. More and Peter Werbe. Bill Bryce Co-op shouting, ‘Shut the fuck up, Preparing columns of full justifi ed on Dumont Press Graphix, p. 221.

22 THE DETROIT PRINTING CO-OP 23 Fredy Perlman at the Detroit Printing Co-op, 1979. The entrance to The machine directly behind Perlman is the folder. The rollers on the the two darkrooms is visible on the right. Harris press are barely visible at the back left.

By the end of the 1970s, the printing industry Connected with radicals, printers, and publishers collective work, with groups forming and reform- was already beginning to decline, and print shops in England, France, and Canada, the Co-op was an ing, people jumping in to work on one project or were closing. Publishers were no longer censoring integral and unforgettable part of the left movement another, coming to work on their own, or joining on content the way they were at the beginning of the in the United States in the 1970s. It had a profound a larger project. Typesetting and printing were often decade. Fredy and Lorraine Perlman were often the effect on many who worked there. Collective a truly collective experience, involving six or seven only ones using the Co-op. Work at the print shop projects that members engaged in were later shaped people in a room working, eating, drinking, still brought satisfaction, but it had also become an by the ideas they read about in publications printed arguing, and laughing. obligation. The building was unglamorous, the at the Co-op, and by the discussions and arguments ceiling leaked, it was dark. At the end of 1979 their they generated. Foremost among these was a desire landlord informed them of plans to sell the building. to work cooperatively, to abolish the wage system, Unable to find anyone in Detroit who wanted to and to abolish the state.33 reopen the Co-op in a new location, they decided to From the outset, the focus of the Co-op was close. A group of young anarchists in Ann Arbor to be a productive space where people could print (the Nameless Anarchists) took the Harris offset whatever they wanted, uncensored, without press. Other equipment ended up in the basements anyone’s labor being exploited. Over the years, and workshops of friends and acquaintances. the Co-op was the site of countless forms of

33 Email from Ralph Franklin, June 30, 2019.

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