New printer for Wellington radical publishing

UPDATE - we got to our stretch goal in record time. Thanks so much! Any extra funds raised will help us to keep our other costs paid as the uncertainty of Covid-19 rolls on. I also want to shout out to our long term regular donors who have, along with some income from printing, been keeping us afloat. Thanks again!!

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The old printer has done more than 600,000 copies, had almost every internal part replaced at least once, but it is coming to the end of its life. We need your help to ensure we can keep making radical and independent books in Wellington. Rebel Press houses a collective of publishers who have been using a small office in the Trades Hall to print, guillotine and bind books since 2008. It’s a very DIY set up that allows us to print small and large runs and means we can start with small runs and use those funds to keep printing more.

Rebel Press primarily exists to support radical left publishing and is currently home to:

* The Freedom Shop is a not-for-profit anarchist bookshop and info-centre whose aim is to spread radical information and support DIY anarchist culture.

* Left of the Equator Press elevates and amplifies the voices of those who work to transform our world for the better, against capitalism, colonialism, authoritarianism and all structures and institutions of unjust power and privilege.

* Lawrence and Gibson is a collective that publishes literary fiction skewered towards the morose, satirical, verbose and thoughtful.

* 5ever books is a publisher of punchy, experimental and interdisciplinary work.

For every book we’ve printed for our collective members, we’ve printed just as many for friends in the community. We’re keen to keep offering our labour and time to help keep the community printing and publishing. For example, on top of the books printed by our publishers we printed:

* Kia Mau: resisting colonial fictions by Tina Ngata,

* the first nine issues of Counterfutures,

* the first run of A Surfeit of Sunsets – which then was published by Mākaro Press,

* a booklet for the second Unsanitary Napkin album and one for the latest Lake South,

* 4000 booklets for the Double the Refugee Quota campaign.

We don’t publish anything and everything - it’s not a business - just things that resonate with a radical and independent spirit. We use 100% recycled paper stock and a soy-based ink.

We’re at a turning point with the old printer struggling – and the printer is at the core of what an underground press does! With a lot of offices downsizing we’ve been able to get a great deal on a late model printer that is reliable and cost effective. Initially we’d hoped to hold a gig or some other fundraiser, but with Covid going the way it is, and new books on the way, we simply don’t have time to wait until we can jam everyone in a room and beg for the cash. If we don't get to the $3000 we'll have to figure out another way to raise the funds... which will probably push this out to 2022 and our ability to gather together.