Press Gang Publishers
Encyclopedia
Press Gang Publishing was a [feminist]] printing
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....

 and publishing
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...

 collective
Collective
A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together on a specific project to achieve a common objective...

 active in [Vancouver, BC, Canada between the early 1970s and 2002.

Early history

The organization started off as a loose counter-cultural printing collective of six women and men, but "tensions arose" between the members about the goals of the press and in 1974 it was reestablished as a women-only feminist and anti-capitalist collective.
The press was incorporated in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, under the BC Companies Act as Press Gang Publishers Ltd. Teh collective operated a printshop (offset lithography, bindery) that served many progressive political, cultural, advocacy, and self-help orgnaizations, as well as cooperative businesses in Vancouver. It published its first title, Women Look at Psychiatry, an anthology edited by Dorothy E. Smith
Dorothy E. Smith
Dorothy Edith Smith is a Canadian sociologist with research interests, besides in sociology, in many disciplines including women's studies, psychology, and educational studies, as well as sub-fields of sociology including feminist theory, family studies, and methodology...

 and Sara David, in 1975.

In 1974, the organization was located at 821 East Hastings St., and it moved in 1978 to 603 Powell St. in the Downtown Eastside
Downtown Eastside
The Downtown Eastside is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is known as "Canada's poorest postal code"....

 neighbourhood of Vancouver. Members of the Press Gang collective trained themselves in the use of printing equipment and graphic design; they also participated in campaigns and community-based movements for social change: feminist, anti-capitalist, and anti-imperialist.

Policies

Press Gang had a policy of rejecting sexist or racist material for publication. For clients, it drew largely from local feminist, radicalist
Radicalization
Radicalization is the process in which an individual changes from passiveness or activism to become more revolutionary, militant or extremist. Radicalization is often associated with youth, adversity, alienation, social exclusion, poverty, or the perception of injustice to self or others.-...

, activist and community groups. The organization took financial chances, and often printed material that mainstream publishers would not. As a feminist publisher, throughout its history Press Gang published books primarily, but not exclusively, by Canadian women authors and artists. Their nonfiction titles addressed social issues
Social issues
Social issues are controversial issues which relate to people's personal lives and interactions. Social issues are distinguished from economic issues...

 like racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

, labour activism, lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 identity, lesbophobia
Lesbophobia
Lesbophobia comprises various forms of negativity toward lesbian women as individuals, as a couple or as a social group...

, censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

, and women in conflict with the mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...

 and criminal justice
Criminal justice
Criminal Justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts...

 systems.

Printing/Publishing split

By 1982, Press Gang paid six full time salaries. The printing part of the operation helped underwrite the activities of the publishing section.

In 1989, the organization formally and amicably split into two collectives, Press Gang Printers Ltd. (a unionized collective) and Press Gang Publishers Feminist Cooperative.

The end of Press Gang

In the later 1980s, facing changes in technology, the advent of the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and increasing competition from larger corporate printshops created insurmountable financial difficulties for the printing collective, and in 1993 Press Gang Printers was forced to cease operations.

Press Gang Publishers continued activity, yet were also squeezed by structural changes to the Canadian publishing industry and an increasing harsh economic climate for Canadian book publishers in the later 1990s. In 2000, Press Gang Publishers formed an alliance with Polestar Publishers of Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...

, British Columbia. Soon after this, Polestar was bought by Raincoast Books
Raincoast Books
Raincoast Books is a Canadian book distribution and wholesale company. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Raincoast was founded by Mark Stanton and Allan MacDougall in 1979 as a consignment wholesaler that shared overhead, warehouse space and staff with the pair's sales agency, Stanton &...

. In 2002 Press Gang Publishers were pushed to declare bankruptcy. Most of their titles remain unavailable.

Selected Authors

  • Chrystos
    Chrystos
    Chrystos is a Menominee rights activist and poet. Prior to being published, she worked as a home caretaker, and an activist for Turtle Mountain Band of Chipewa, Norma Jean Croy , and Leonard Peltier....

  • Ivan E. Coyote
  • Sheila Baxter
    Sheila Baxter
    Sheila Baxter is an anti-poverty activist who has written several books about poverty and mental illness in Canada.-Life:She became active in the anti-poverty movement in Quebec, Canada in 1970...

  • Marusya Bociurkiw
  • Rita Wong
    Rita Wong
    -Biography:Wong grew up in Calgary, Alberta and currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is the author of two books of poetry, monkeypuzzle and forage. Her work investigates the relationships between social justice, ecology, decolonization, and contemporary poetics...

  • Marion Douglas
  • SKY Lee
    Sky Lee
    Sky Lee is a Canadian artist and novelist.Lee has published both feminist fiction and non-fiction and identifies as lesbian.-Personal life:...

  • Betsy Warland
    Betsy Warland
    Betsy Warland is a Canadian writer and poet.- Life :Betsy Warland obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Art and Education at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, Warland studied at Pennsylvania's State College before immigrating to Canada in 1972. In 1975, she initiated the Toronto Women's Writing...

  • Lee Maracle
    Lee Maracle
    -Early life:Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, she grew up in the neighbouring city of North Vancouver and attended Simon Fraser University. She was one of the first Aboriginal people to be published in the early 1970s.-Career:...

  • Daphne Marlatt
    Daphne Marlatt
    Daphne Marlatt, née Buckle, CM , is a Canadian poet who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia....

  • Nancy Richler
  • Cathy Stonehouse
    Cathy Stonehouse
    Cathy Stonehouse is a British-born poet and writer who has lived in Canada since 1988.Stonehouse grew up in Holmes Chapel, a village in the county of Cheshire in the North West of England...

  • Karlene Faith
    Karlene Faith
    Karlene Faith is a "leading" Canadian writer, feminist, scholar, and human rights activist. She is a professor emerita at the Simon Fraser University School of Criminology.- Early Life and Career :...

  • Elana Dykewomon
    Elana Dykewomon
    Elana Dykewomon is a Jewish lesbian activist, award-winning author, editor and teacher.- Childhood :...

  • Persimmon Blackbridge
  • Lizard Jones
  • Karen X. Tulchinsky
    Karen X. Tulchinsky
    Karen X. Tulchinsky is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, anthologist and screenwriter from Vancouver, British Columbia. She is openly lesbian.- Literary/ Film Television Career :...

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