Publications Distribution Cooperative (PDC) was set up in 1976 to distribute

radical Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

, green/

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

publications in Britain to the

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

and

newsagent A newsagent's shop or simply newsagent's or paper shop (British English), newsagency (Australian English) or newsstand (American and Canadian English) is a business that sells newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, snacks and often items of local ...

trade.

History

Publications Distribution Cooperative catalogues 1979

In Britain, the 1970s was a time of change in publishing and book selling with “the development in a very short period of a new and substantial radical sector and of associated retail outlets”. PDC was integral to this change. The growth of new technologies in printing with

offset litho Offset printing is a common printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on ...

phototypesetting Phototypesetting is a method of setting type. It uses photography to make columns of type on a scroll of photographic paper. It has been made obsolete by the popularity of the personal computer and desktop publishing (digital typesetting). Th ...

and more, offered cheaper, easier and more accessible ways to produce publications in a political climate eager for debate. PDC provided the sales and distribution link between the book, magazine and pamphlet publishers and the new alternative, radical bookshops as well as the established book and newsagent trade. The existence and growth of the co-operative coincided with the launch of many new radical magazines and journals, including The

Leveller The Levellers were a political movement active during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms who were committed to popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law and religious tolerance. The hallmark of Leveller thought was its popul ...

Spare Rib ''Spare Rib'' was a second-wave feminist magazine, founded in 1972 in the United Kingdom, that emerged from the counter culture of the late 1960s as a consequence of meetings involving, among others, Rosie Boycott and Marsha Rowe. ''Spare Rib' ...

, Libertarian Education,

Feminist Review ''Feminist Review'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal with a focus on exploring gender in its multiple forms and interrelationships. The journal was established in 1979. It is published by SAGE Publishing and is edited by a collective. ...

and publishers Centerprise Books,

Child Poverty Action Group Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) is a UK charity that works to alleviate poverty and social exclusion. History The Group first met on 5 March 1965, at a meeting organised by Harriett C. Wilson. It followed the publication of Brian Abel-Smith a ...

WRRC WRRC (107.7 FM, 107.7 The Bronc) is a college FM radio station in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, serving the students of Rider University. It is the broadcast outlet for Rider University Men's and Women's basketball, as well as Burlington County and ...

Zed Books Zed Books is an independent non-fiction publishing company based in London, UK. It was founded in 1977 under the name Zed Press by Roger van Zwanenberg. Zed publishes books for an international audience of both general and academic readers, co ...

and more. This history was celebrated at an event in November 2022 at th
Barbican
'Quiet Revolutions: A Celebration of Radical Bookshop

where booksellers and publishers, both contemporary - Gay's the Word (bookshop), Gay's the Word
Newham Bookshop

Housmans Housmans is a bookshop in London, England, and is one of the longest-running radical bookshops in the UK. The shop was founded by a collective of pacifists in 1945 and has been based in Kings Cross, London since 1959. Various grassroots organis ...

, Roundtable Books, Th
Bookish Type
an
Five Leaves Bookshop
- and from 1970/80s - Centerprise, Freedom News,

New Beacon , motto_translation = Give light out of darkness , established = , closed = , type = Preparatory School , religious_affiliation = , president = , head_label = Headmas ...

, Sisterwrite and Silvermoon - met for a bookfair and workshops/seminars. In the mid 1970s, after a series of meetings of publishers (the Radical Publications Group - Spare Rib magazine,

The Leveller ''The Leveller'' was a British political magazine, collectively produced in London from 1976 to 1982 by a shifting coalition of radicals, socialists, marxists, feminists, and others of the British left and progressive movements. It was publishe ...

, Radical Science Journal,

Radical Philosophy ''Radical Philosophy'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal of critical theory and philosophy. It was established in 1972 with the purpose of providing a forum for the theoretical work which was emerging in the wake of the radical movement ...

and more).) and alternative booksellers ( Ken Worpole from Centerprise Bookshop and others), in 1975/76, a feasibility study on distribution was undertaken. As a result PDC was set up in autumn 1976 by an initial group of five people supported by representatives from radical publications and booksellers.

Structure

Based in

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The well after which it was named was redisco ...

Workshops in London, PDC was set up as a

worker co-operative A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and Workers' self-management, 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 ...

that operated as a

collective A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an ...

.. Initially constituted as a partnership, it was registered as an Industrial & Provident Society on 20 October 1977. In 1977 offices were opened in

Hebden Bridge Hebden Bridge is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, England. It is west of Halifax and 14 miles (21 km) north-east of Rochdale, at the confluence of the River Calder and the Hebden Water. The town is the largest ...

, West Yorkshire and later in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

with a co-operative member based in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

who serviced outlets in the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

. In 1979 a decision was made to set up a parallel co-operative, Scottish and Northern Books (S&N), based in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and

, to enable local staff to make decisions relevant to their work and the markets they served. S&N was registered as an Industrial & Provident Society on 5 September 1979. The original London-based PDC divided into two groups, Full Time Distribution, which would continue to distribute magazines throughout Britain, and Southern Distribution, which would sell books and pamphlets in London and the South

Distribution

At that time the distribution of magazines and periodicals through newsagents was controlled by a group of three wholesalers who would not take on radical titles. PDC worked to challenge this while building an alternative distribution network. The needs of the magazines, especially monthly publications with a growing audience like

and

, demanded a fortnightly distribution run which ensured the magazines would be delivered regularly. This aggregation of magazine and book deliveries structured the work at PDC from the outset and included use of

Red Star Parcels Red Star Parcels was a service which used passenger trains for transporting parcels between passenger railway stations throughout the United Kingdom, owned and operated by British Rail. It was introduced experimentally on 1 April 1963. Send ...

(rail) and alternative distributors like

Suma Wholefoods Suma is the trading name of the Triangle Wholefoods Collective Limited, a worker co-operative wholefoods wholesaler. It was founded in Leeds in 1977 and is now based in Elland, West Yorkshire. It is the largest independent wholefood wholesaler ...

as well as the

Royal Mail , kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Royal Mail.svg , logo_size = 250px , type = Public limited company , traded_as = , foundation = , founder = Henry VIII , location = London, England, UK , key_people = * Keith Williams ...

. PDC co-op members would deliver parcels, collect magazine returns and sell new titles to the bookshops on the fortnightly run. “PDC was a powerful catalyst for growth in the radical book trade, as radical bookshops, stalls, and groups running occasional events, could easily obtain a range of stock from one source, while publishers knew there would be a reliable market for their output”. Regular collective meetings were held to discuss and decide upon new titles as a growing range of publishers applied for a distribution deal. Many of the publishers, despite their commitment, were not professionals, and without publishing experience they often needed advice and support to make their publications acceptable to the book trade. One science journalist commented: "Until recently, there was no way that an author could hope to distribute a radical pamphlet, except by taking it to bookshops himself." As PDC established a network in bookshops, newsagents and non-traditional sales outlets and developed a regular pattern of fortnightly distribution deliveries and sales representation across the UK, and to some shops in Europe and the USA, it increased the sales of many political and alternative magazines. Previously there had been no organised means of distribution, but now publishing groups could focus on writing and production, although not all magazines were impressed by the work of PDC. PDC created and developed a profile in both the book and newsagent trades, and became known and respected as a distributor of radical, feminist, ecology and left-of-centre publications It enabled bookshops to obtain a wide range of publications from one source. “PDC was really important. Without the distribution network there were many publications, newspapers, leaflets etc that we would not have been able to circulate. These were the days before social media and digital communication. The rise of alternative publishing, bookselling and distribution systems were about taking control of the whole process, not being at the mercy of straight publishers, etc, deciding what could and couldn't be produced and shared. It was about seizing political power, the ability to be self-determining and creating a radical new culture.” As PDC grew it was listed in book trade, library directories and listings. This was an important trade recognition and a link to enable wider access and distribution of the books and magazines. In a pre-internet world getting the word out on new publications was far slower and more arduous. PDC was also credited in citations in academic books and journals, another step in the acknowledgement of the role PDC played. In 1980 it was described as "the most vital internal element in the growth of the alternative book trade in Britain in the 1970s". When PDC stopped trading at the end of 1983 it left a huge gap for publishers and bookshops.

Finance

PDC was limited by a lack of business capital and was started using loans from supporters and a lot of unpaid labour. It secured crucial grant support from the

Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation ( pt, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One of ...

and the Rowntree Trust and grew to employ 15 people. In 1978/79 the wages of eleven members of the collective were paid by the

Manpower Services Commission The Manpower Services Commission (MSC) was a non-departmental public body of the Department of Employment Group in the United Kingdom created by Edward Heath's Conservative Government in 1973. The MSC had a remit to co-ordinate employment and tr ...

(MSC) through its Job Creation Programme. Support was not continued into a second year when

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

and a Conservative government were elected in May 1979. PDC distributed a huge range of publications, supported an ever-growing market of outlets and had a significant impact on the political debates and culture of the time. Its eventual failure was a result of many factors. Providing a marketing and distribution service to so many diverse publications proved to be financially unviable. In a pre-computer world handling 300 publishers for distribution to 500 outlets was a huge task. In the end too few of the activities were financially profitable. The lack of capital investment and of business and financial skills exacerbated the problems.

Legacy

PDC London continued trading until late 1983, while S&N Books in Manchester and Edinburgh continued to trade until May 1986. The experience of PDC and S&N was fundamental to the creation of two new businesses that were started after PDC ceased trading �
Bookspeed
in Edinburgh an
Turnaround
in London – both of which are still working as distributors in 2022. It has also been argued that PDC has had a long-lasting cultural and political effect in enabling the wider distribution of radical ideas and literature than would otherwise have been the case. PDC was included and was part of the discussion on the radical booktrade in the 70s/80s, and now, held at th
Barbican
in November 2022.

Publications distributed by PDC and S&N

Magazines included:Book and magazines catalogues for publications distributed by PDC, Scottish & Northern Books, Full Time Distribution, Southern Distribution. Published approximately annually ''

Camerawork Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to focus ...

'', ''Community Action'', ''

'', '' Musics'',
Radical Statistics
', ''Red Rag,''
Release
',
Science for People
', ''

'', ''Troops Out'', '' Undercurrents'',
Women’s Voice
' and many more. Book publishers included: Centerprise Books,

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucle ...

(CND),

(CPAG)
Federation of Worker Writers and Community Publishers

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split with ...

Gay Men's Press Gay Men's Press was a publisher of books based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1979, the imprint was run until 2000 by its founders, then until 2006 by Millivres Prowler. Overview Launched in 1979 by Aubrey Walter, David Fernbach, and Rich ...

, Interaction Inprint,

Institute of Race Relations The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) is a think tank based in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1958 in order to publish research on race relations worldwide, and in 1972 was transformed into an "anti-racist think tank". Proposed by ''Sund ...

(IRR),

NCCL Liberty, formerly, and still formally, called the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), is an advocacy group and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, which challenges unjust laws, protects civil liberties and promotes huma ...

(National Council for Civil Liberties, now Liberty),

Onlywomen Press Onlywomen Press (briefly known as The Women's Press) was a feminist press based in London. It was the only feminist press to be founded by out lesbians, Lilian Mohin, Sheila Shulman, and Deborah Hart. It commenced publishing in 1974 and was on ...

, Onyx Press, Sheba Feminist Publishers,

Women’s Research and Resources Centre,

and many more. Pamphlets were distributed from many different publishers and campaigning organisations as well as one-off campaigns. PDC and S&N both distributed thousands of copies of ''Protest and Survive'' written by

E. P. Thompson Edward Palmer Thompson (3 February 1924 – 28 August 1993) was an English historian, writer, socialist and peace campaigner. He is best known today for his historical work on the radical movements in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, in ...

and published by Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation/Spokesman Books, a critical anti-nuclear reply to

Protect and Survive ''Protect and Survive'' was a public information campaign on civil defence. Produced by the British government between 1974 and 1980, it intended to advise the public on how to protect themselves during a nuclear attack. The campaign compris ...

published by the government. Academic journals included: ''

Capital & Class ''Capital & Class'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the fields of politics and economics, especially concerning Marxism and critical theories like feminism, environmentalism, poststructuralism, along with other radical and ...

'', ''

Gay Left Gay Left was a collective of gay men and a journal of the same name which they published every six months in London between the years 1975 and 1980. It was formed after the dissolution of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the Gay Marxist Gro ...

'', ''Ideology and Consciousness'', '' m/f'', ''

Race and Class ''Race & Class'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal on contemporary racism and imperialism. It is published quarterly by Sage Publications on behalf of the Institute of Race Relations and is interdisciplinary, publishing material across the human ...