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Grassroots media in Europe

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Radical & Community Printshops (Wiki)

Location

United Kingdom

This site is devoted to building a history of London's late 20th century radical and community printing collectives; the poster collectives, the service printers and typesetters, the print resource centres. This is a history that doesn't exist except in the memories of the ex-workers, friends and clients. The idea is that people who were involved in the printshops can create and edit the pages. You need to register and get a password to do this.

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Eva & Co (Magazine, 1982-1992)

Location

Austria

Eva and Co was founded in 1981 by a group of women coming from different fields: visual arts, music, literature, and jurisprudence. By combining different disciplines, Eva and Co intended to bring about a theoretical discourse as well as active intervention into social consciousness and the art world.

The magazine contained theory, social issues as well as all forms of artistic expressions. Similar to the strategies of commercial campaigns, we tried to find a broader public for feminist contents via public relations, art competitions, and frequent presence in mainstream media.

Important aims were to promote the work of contemporary women artists and activists, as well as building up networks between women artists in local and international contexts.

The presentations of the magazine were accompanied by readings, performances, exhibitions, concerts, interventions and poster campaigns.

From 1986, each issue focussed on a different topic, e.g. “Architecture”, “Visual Arts”, “Film and Video”, “Music”, “Literature”, “Science Fiction” or on contents like “Men”, “Work”, “Power”, “Violence”, “Desire”, reflected from the viewpoints of visual artists, writers, theoreticians, activists...

From 1989 Eva and Co was member of IAWA (International Association of Women in the Arts), a European network of Women Art Associations. As a result, some of the issues were published bilingual (German/English, German/Spanish). There were connections with other feminist European Art Magazines, like “Ruimte” (Amsterdam) and “Women´s Art” (WASL, London).

By 1992, the production of physical publications seemed to become obsolete due to the upcoming of the new medium internet, and the women involved in Eva and Co decided to continue art activism and networking in many different ways – according to their manifesto: “We will infiltrate everything! We will go underground and to the sky. And be warned: in the future we will camouflage ourselves.”

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The RAG (Magazine)

Location

Dublin
Ireland
53° 20' 59.298" N, 6° 15' 37.116" W

The RAG is a magazine produced by a diverse group of anarcha-feminist women in Dublin. We are all feminists, united in our recognition that women's subordination exists. We are all anarchists, united in our belief for the need to create alternatives to this capitalistic, patriarchal society wherein all are dominated and exploited.

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Lash Back (Magazine)

Location

Ireland

We are a feminist collective and publication.

We are part of a movement for social change, and we believe that addressing gender inequality is fundamental to the creation of a fair society.

We aim to create a positive, non-hierarchical and unified space, which ultimately embraces values of respect and diversity.

It is our intention to open a feminist discourse and provide a platform for the exchange of information.

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Masculine Femininities Zine

Location

London
United Kingdom
51° 30' 26.406" N, 0° 7' 39.6588" W

Statement:
This is a free zine about gender Identities – femininity and masculinity – stories, poetry, images and all those things that dont get discussed, all those gender minorities that do not get enough recognition, visibility or representation. It comprises of people of colour, trans femme boys, faggy butches, masculine females, feminine males, trans male drag queens, gender variants, andogynes, masculine people and femmes of all genders and then some!

It is put together by Misster Raju Rage, formally Misster Scratch, a trans- undefined person of colour

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Remembering Olive Collective (Blog)

Location

United Kingdom

Do you remember Olive Morris?

Olive Morris was a key figure in Lambeth’s local history. She worked with the Black Panther movement; set up Brixton Black Women’s Group, was a founder member of The Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD) and was central to the squatter campaigns of the 1970s. She died tragically young in 1979 at age 27.

The aim of this weblog is to create a collective portrait of Olive Morris, bringing together the personal memories of those who knew her, and publishing online information and materials relating to her life and work. Lambeth Council has one of its main buildings named after her and yet there is very little information about Olive Morris that is publicly available, especially on the Internet.

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Missy Magazine: Pop Culture for Women

Location

Germany

Info:
German feminist magazine on pop culture, politics, style, etc. a blog is integrated into the website

Statement:
Wieso gibt es in Deutschland kein Magazin, das die Berichterstattung über Popkultur, Politik und Style mit einer feministischen Haltung verbindet? Weil es bisher noch niemand gemacht hat. Wir wollten so ein Heft unbedingt lesen und glauben, dass es vielen anderen jungen Frauen genauso geht. Deshalb machen wir Missy.

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Spare Rib (Magazine, 1972-1993)

Location

United Kingdom

"Set up [in 1972] to, at that time, provide a feminist alternative to the conventional women's mags. Monthly, printed by a commercial publisher. Circulation: 20,000. Distribution: commercial distributor, PDC, subs, conferences, etc. Costs: £2,500 per issue, and SR is self financing. 15/16 women work on SR, some full and some part time. They work collectively, though some of them have specific tasks. Closed collective, paid for their work. Work a 5 day week.

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Women's News (Magazine, 1984-2007?)

Location

Ireland

Women's News was established in 1984 by a small group of volunteer women who recognised that the lack of women's voices in society was detrimental not only to the development of peace but also to the condition of women. Conflict silences women's voices and the magazine provided a forum through which women could communicate across the divide on various issues affecting not only women but society at large. From its birth Women's News has encouraged grassroots women to use the magazine as a way of having their say and contribute to reconciliation and peace in a safe and effective way. The majority of the contributors to the magazine are grassroots women and Women's News operates various programmes to enable women to access and utilise the media as a means of participation. The power of the media in regards to shaping and influencing the public agenda should not be underestimated, the media not only follow the agenda but also lead the agenda. Without the voice of women being integral within this industry an egalitarian society will never become a reality.

Women's News is the only feminist magazine in Ireland and it adheres to a feminist ethos, however it is completely inclusive and opens its pages to debate and discussion. There is a huge range of magazines on the shelves aimed at women, however none deal with peace building, attitudinal change, challenging the status quo et cetera to the degree that Women's News does. Very few if any, rely on grassroots women for its articles and provide such an open and inclusive forum for expression and communication.

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