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The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group. In specific recent (post-World War II) Asian, American and Western European context, the term "underground press" has most frequently been employed to refer to the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the
counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
of the late 1960s and early 1970s in
India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
and
Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...
in Asia, in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
and
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
in North America, and the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and other western nations. It can also refer to the newspapers produced independently in repressive regimes. In German occupied Europe, for example, a thriving underground press operated, usually in association with the
Resistance Resistance may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics * Either of two similarly named but otherwise unrelated comic book series, both published by Wildstorm: ** ''Resistance'' (comics), based on the video game of the same title ** ''T ...
. Other notable examples include the ''
samizdat Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...
'' and '' bibuła'', which operated in the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
and
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
respectively, during the Cold War.


Origins

In Western Europe, a century after the invention of the printing press, a widespread underground press emerged in the mid-16th century with the clandestine circulation of
Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
books and broadsides, many of them printed in Geneva, which were secretly smuggled into other nations where the carriers who distributed such literature might face imprisonment, torture or death. Both Protestant and Catholic nations fought the introduction of Calvinism, which with its emphasis on intractable evil made its appeal to alienated, outsider subcultures willing to violently rebel against both church and state. In 18th century France, a large illegal underground press of the Enlightenment emerged, circulating anti-Royalist, anti-clerical and pornographic works in a context where all published works were officially required to be licensed. Starting in the mid-19th century an underground press sprang up in many countries around the world for the purpose of circulating the publications of banned Marxist political parties; during the German Nazi occupation of Europe, clandestine presses sponsored and subsidized by the Allies were set up in many of the occupied nations, although it proved nearly impossible to build any sort of effective underground press movement within Germany itself. The
French resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...
published a large and active underground press that printed over 2 million newspapers a month; the leading titles were ''
Combat Combat (French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, o ...
'', ''
Libération ''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France ...
'', '' Défense de la France'', and '' Le Franc-Tireur.'' Each paper was the organ of a separate resistance network, and funds were provided from Allied headquarters in London and distributed to the different papers by resistance leader
Jean Moulin Jean Pierre Moulin (; 20 June 1899 – 8 July 1943) was a French civil servant and resistant who served as the first President of the National Council of the Resistance during World War II from 27 May 1943 until his death less than two months ...
. Allied
prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...
(POWs) published an underground newspaper called POW WOW. In
Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, wh ...
, also since approximately 1940, underground publications were known by the name ''
samizdat Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...
''. The countercultural underground press movement of the 1960s borrowed the name from previous "underground presses" such as the Dutch underground press during the
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...
occupations of the 1940s. Those predecessors were truly "underground", meaning they were illegal, thus published and distributed covertly. While the countercultural "underground" papers frequently battled with governmental authorities, for the most part they were distributed openly through a network of street vendors, newsstands and head shops, and thus reached a wide audience. The underground press in the 1960s and 1970s existed in most countries with high GDP per capita and
freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exerci ...
; similar publications existed in some developing countries and as part of the ''samizdat'' movement in the
communist state A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the Ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet U ...
s, notably
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
. Published as weeklies, monthlies, or "occasionals", and usually associated with
left-wing politics Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in ...
, they evolved on the one hand into today's alternative weeklies and on the other into
zine A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very s ...
s.


In Australia

The most prominent underground publication in Australia was a satirical magazine called '' OZ'' (1963 to 1969), which initially owed a debt to local university student newspapers such as Honi Soit (University of Sydney) and Tharunka (University of New South Wales), along with the UK magazine ''
Private Eye ''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satirical and current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely recognised for its prominent criticism ...
''. The original edition appeared in Sydney on April Fools' Day, 1963 and continued sporadically until 1969. Editions published after February 1966 were edited by Richard Walsh, following the departure for the UK of his original co-editors
Richard Neville Richard Neville may refer to: *Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (1428–1471), "Warwick the Kingmaker", English noble, fought in the Wars of the Roses *Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury (1400–1460), Yorkist leader during the Wars of the ...
and
Martin Sharp Martin Ritchie Sharp (21 January 1942 – 1 December 2013) was an Australian artist, cartoonist, songwriter and film-maker. Career Sharp was born in Bellevue Hill, New South Wales in 1942, and educated at Cranbrook private school, where one ...
, who went on to found a British edition (''London Oz'') in January 1967. In Melbourne Phillip Frazer, founder and editor of pop music magazine ''
Go-Set ''Go-Set'' was the first Australian pop music newspaper, published weekly from 2 February 1966 to 24 August 1974, and was founded in Melbourne by Phillip Frazer, Peter Raphael and Tony Schauble. NOTE: This PDF is 282 pages. Widely described as ...
'' since January 1966, branched out into alternate, underground publications with ''
Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
'' in 1970, followed by '' High Times'' (1971 to 1972) and ''
The Digger ''The Digger'' is a 24-page magazine in Glasgow, Scotland which focusses on crime stories. It is published weekly, in an A5 newsletter format. In 2012, the magazine went from newsprint to glossy. Background The magazine was founded by James C ...
'' (1972 to 1975).


List of Australian underground papers

* ''
The Digger ''The Digger'' is a 24-page magazine in Glasgow, Scotland which focusses on crime stories. It is published weekly, in an A5 newsletter format. In 2012, the magazine went from newsprint to glossy. Background The magazine was founded by James C ...
'' (1972–1975) * '' The Living Daylights'' (1973-1974) * '' High Times'' (1971-1972) * '' OZ Sydney'' (1963-1969) * ''New Dawn'' magazine * ''Nexus'' magazine * ''
Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
'' (1970-1971)


In the United Kingdom

The underground press offered a platform to the socially impotent and mirrored the changing way of life in the UK underground. In
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, Barry Miles, John Hopkins, and others produced '' International Times'' from October 1966 which, following legal threats from ''The Times'' newspaper was renamed ''IT''.
Richard Neville Richard Neville may refer to: *Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (1428–1471), "Warwick the Kingmaker", English noble, fought in the Wars of the Roses *Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury (1400–1460), Yorkist leader during the Wars of the ...
arrived in London from Australia, where he had edited '' Oz'' (1963 to 1969). He launched a British version (1967 to 1973), which was A4 (as opposed to ''IT'''s broadsheet format). Very quickly, the relaunched ''Oz'' shed its more austere satire magazine image and became a mouthpiece of the underground. It was the most colourful and visually adventurous of the alternative press (sometimes to the point of near-illegibility), with designers like
Martin Sharp Martin Ritchie Sharp (21 January 1942 – 1 December 2013) was an Australian artist, cartoonist, songwriter and film-maker. Career Sharp was born in Bellevue Hill, New South Wales in 1942, and educated at Cranbrook private school, where one ...
. Other publications followed, such as '' Friends'' (later ''Frendz''), based in the
Ladbroke Grove Ladbroke Grove () is an area and a road in West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue. It is also a name given t ...
area of
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
; '' Ink'', which was more overtly political; and '' Gandalf's Garden'' which espoused the mystic path.


Legal challenges

The flaunting of sexuality within the underground press provoked prosecution. ''IT'' was taken to court for publishing small ads for homosexuals; despite the 1967 legalisation of homosexuality between consenting adults in private, importuning remained subject to prosecution. Publication of the ''Oz'' "School Kids" issue brought charges against the three ''Oz'' editors, who were convicted and given jail sentences. This was the first time the
Obscene Publications Act 1959 The Obscene Publications Act 1959 (c. 66) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament that significantly reformed the law related to obscenity in England and Wales. Prior to the passage of the Act, the law on publishing obscene mater ...
was combined with a moral conspiracy charge. The convictions were, however, overturned on appeal.


Harassment and intimidation

Police harassment of the British underground, in general, became commonplace, to the point that in 1967 the police seemed to focus in particular on the apparent source of agitation: the underground press. The police campaign may have had an effect contrary to that which was presumably intended. If anything, according to one or two who were there at the time, it actually made the underground press stronger. "It focused attention, stiffened resolve, and tended to confirm that what we were doing was considered dangerous to the establishment", remembered Mick Farren. From April 1967, and for some while later, the police raided the offices of ''International Times'' to try, it was alleged, to force the paper out of business. In order to raise money for ''IT'' a benefit event was put together, "The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream"
Alexandra Palace Alexandra Palace is a Grade II listed entertainment and sports venue in London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. It is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and the later Tottenham Wood Farm. Orig ...
on 29 April 1967. On one occasion – in the wake of yet another raid on ''IT'' – London's alternative press succeeded in pulling off what was billed as a 'reprisal attack' on the police. The paper ''Black Dwarf'' published a detailed floor-by-floor 'Guide to Scotland Yard', complete with diagrams, descriptions of locks on particular doors, and snippets of overheard conversation. The anonymous author, or 'blue dwarf', as he styled himself, claimed to have perused archive files, and even to have sampled one or two brands of scotch in the Commissioner's office. The London ''
Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...
'' headlined the incident as "Raid on the Yard". A day or two later ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
'' announced that the prank had resulted in all security passes to the police headquarters having to be withdrawn and then re-issued.


Support from British pop culture

By the end of the decade, community artists and bands such as
Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philosophical lyrics an ...
(before they "went commercial"), The Deviants, Pink Fairies,
Hawkwind Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including ha ...
,
Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English people, English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy fiction, fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic nov ...
and
Steve Peregrin Took Steve Peregrin Took (born Stephen Ross Porter; 28 July 1949 – 27 October 1980) was an English musician and songwriter, best known for his membership of the duo Tyrannosaurus Rex with Marc Bolan. After breaking with Bolan, he concentrated on ...
would arise in a symbiotic co-operation with the underground press. The underground press publicised these bands and this made it possible for them to tour and get record deals. The band members travelled around spreading the ethos and the demand for underground newspapers and magazines grew and flourished for a while. Neville published an account of the
counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
called ''Play Power'', in which he described most of the world's underground publications. He also listed many of the regular key topics from those publications, including the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, Black Power, politics,
police brutality Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, ...
, hippies and the lifestyle revolution, drugs, popular music, new society, cinema, theatre, graphics, cartoons, etc.


Local papers

Apart from publications such as ''IT'' and ''Oz'', both of which had a national circulation, the 1960s and 1970s saw the emergence of a whole range of local alternative newspapers, which were usually published monthly. These were largely made possible by the introduction in the 1950s of offset litho printing, which was much cheaper than traditional typesetting and use of the rotary letterpress. Such local papers included: * ''Aberdeen Peoples Press'' * ''Alarm'' (Swansea) * ''Andersonstown News'' (Belfast) * '' Brighton Voice'' * ''Bristol Voice'' * ''Feedback'' (Norwich) * ''Hackney People's Press'' * ''Islington Gutter Press'' * ''Leeds Other Paper'' * ''Response'' (Earl's Court, London) * ''Sheffield Free Press'' * ''West Highland Free Press'' A 1980 review identified some 70 such publications around the United Kingdom but estimated that the true number could well have run into hundreds. Such papers were usually published anonymously, for fear of the UK's draconian libel laws. They followed a broad
anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...
,
libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
, left-wing of the Labour Party, socialist approach but the philosophy of a paper was usually flexible as those responsible for its production came and went. Most papers were run on collective principles.


List of UK underground papers


North America


Legal definition of "underground"

In the United States, the term ''underground'' did not mean ''illegal'' as it did in many other countries. The First Amendment and various court decisions (e.g. '' Near v. Minnesota'') give very broad rights to anyone to publish a newspaper or other publication, and severely restrict government efforts to close down or censor a private publication. In fact, when censorship attempts are made by government agencies, they are either done in clandestine fashion (to keep it from being known the action is being taken by a government agency) or are usually ordered stopped by the courts when judicial action is taken in response to them. A publication must, in general, be committing a crime (for example, reporters burglarizing someone's office to obtain information about a news item); violating the law in publishing a particular article or issue (printing obscene material,
copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, ...
,
libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defi ...
, breaking a
non-disclosure agreement A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is a legal contract or part of a contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wis ...
); directly threatening national security; or causing or potentially causing an imminent
emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...
(the "
clear and present danger ''Clear and Present Danger'' is a political thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and published on August 17, 1989. A sequel to '' The Cardinal of the Kremlin'' (1988), main character Jack Ryan becomes acting Deputy Director of Intelligence in ...
" standard) to be ordered stopped or otherwise suppressed, and then usually only the particular offending article or articles in question will be banned, while the newspaper itself is allowed to continue operating and can continue publishing other articles. In the U.S. the term "underground newspaper" generally refers to an independent (and typically smaller) newspaper focusing on unpopular themes or counterculture issues. Typically, these tend to be politically to the left or far left. More narrowly, in the U.S. the term "underground newspaper" most often refers to publications of the period 1965–1973, when a sort of boom or craze for local tabloid underground newspapers swept the country in the wake of court decisions making prosecution for obscenity far more difficult. These publications became the voice of the rising
New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, ...
and the
hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
/psychedelic/
rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...
counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
of the 1960s in America, and a focal point of opposition to the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
and the draft.


Origins

The North American countercultural press of the 1960s drew inspiration from predecessors that had begun in the 1950s, such as the ''
Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'' and Paul Krassner's satirical paper '' The Realist.'' Arguably, the first underground newspaper of the 1960s was the '' Los Angeles Free Press'', founded in 1964 and first published under that name in 1965.


1965–1973 boom period

According to
Louis Menand Louis Menand (; born January 21, 1952) is an American critic, essayist, and professor, best known for his Pulitzer-winning book '' The Metaphysical Club'' (2001), an intellectual and cultural history of late 19th and early 20th century America. ...
, writing in ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issue ...
'', the underground press movement in the United States was "one of the most spontaneous and aggressive growths in publishing history." During the peak years of the phenomenon, there were generally about 100 papers currently publishing at any given time. But the underground press phenomenon proved short-lived. An Underground Press Syndicate (UPS) roster published in November 1966 listed 14 underground papers, 11 of them in the United States, two in England, and one in Canada. Within a few years the number had mushroomed. A 1971 roster, published in Abbie Hoffman's '' Steal This Book'', listed 271 UPS-affiliated papers; 11 were in Canada, 23 in Europe, and the remainder in the United States. The underground press' combined readership eventually reached into the millions. The early papers varied greatly in visual style, content, and even in basic concept — and emerged from very different kinds of communities.Reed, John
"The Underground Press and Its Extraordinary Moment in US History,"
''
Hyperallergic ''Hyperallergic'' is an online arts magazine, based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded by the art critic Hrag Vartanian and his husband Veken Gueyikian in October 2009, the site describes itself as a "forum for serious, playful, and radical thinking ...
'' (July 26, 2016).
Many were decidedly rough-hewn, learning journalistic and production skills on the run. Some were militantly political while others featured highly spiritual content and were graphically sophisticated and adventuresome. By 1969, virtually every sizable city or college town in North America boasted at least one underground newspaper. Among the most prominent of the underground papers were the '' San Francisco Oracle,'' '' San Francisco Express Times'', the '' Berkeley Barb'' and '' Berkeley Tribe''; '' Open City'' (
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
), ''
Fifth Estate The Fifth Estate is a socio-cultural reference to groupings of outlier viewpoints in contemporary society, and is most associated with bloggers, journalists publishing in non-mainstream media outlets, and the social media or "social license". The ...
'' (
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
), '' Other Scenes'' (dispatched from various locations around the world by
John Wilcock John Wilcock (4 August 1927 – 13 September 2018) was a British journalist known for his work in the underground press, as well as his travel guide books. The first news editor of the New York '' Village Voice'', Wilcock shook up staid publ ...
); ''
The Helix A helix is a spiral-like space curve. Helix may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Helix (roller coaster), a roller coaster at Liseberg in Gothenburg, Sweden Print * ''The Helix'' (magazine), an Australian teen science bimonthly * ...
'' (
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
); ''
Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appeara ...
'' (
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...
); ''The
Chicago Seed ''The Chicago Seed'' was an underground newspaper published biweekly in Chicago, Illinois from May 1967 to 1974; there were 121 issues published in all. It was notable for its colorful psychedelic graphics and its eclectic, non-doctrinaire radic ...
''; '' The Great Speckled Bird'' (
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...
); '' The Rag'' (
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
); ''
Rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' ( pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...
'' (
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
); '' Space City!'' (
Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...
) and in
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
, ''
The Georgia Straight ''The Georgia Straight'' is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Overstory Media Group. Often known simply as ''The Straight'', it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools ...
'' (
Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...
, BC). '' The Rag'', founded in
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
, in 1966 by Thorne Dreyer and Carol Neiman, was especially influential. Historian Laurence Leamer called it "one of the few legendary undergrounds,"Leamer, Laurence, ''The Paper Revolutionaries: The Rise of the Underground Press'' (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972) and, according to John McMillian, it served as a model for many papers that followed. ''The Rag'' was the sixth member of UPS and the first underground paper in the South and, according to historian Abe Peck, it was the "first undergrounder to represent the participatory democracy, community organizing and synthesis of politics and culture that the New Left of the mid-sixties was trying to develop." Leamer, in his 1972 book ''The Paper Revolutionaries'', called ''The Rag'' "one of the few legendary undergrounds". Gilbert Shelton's legendary ''
Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers ''The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'' is an underground comic about a fictional trio of stoner characters, created by the American artist Gilbert Shelton. The Freak Brothers first appeared in ''The Rag'', an underground newspaper published in Au ...
'' comic strip began in ''The Rag'', and thanks in part to UPS, was republished all over the world. Probably the most graphically innovative of the underground papers was the '' San Francisco Oracle''.
John Wilcock John Wilcock (4 August 1927 – 13 September 2018) was a British journalist known for his work in the underground press, as well as his travel guide books. The first news editor of the New York '' Village Voice'', Wilcock shook up staid publ ...
, a founder of the Underground Press Syndicate, wrote about the ''Oracle'': "Its creators are using color the way Lautrec must once have experimented with lithography – testing the resources of the medium to the utmost and producing what almost any experienced newspaperman would tell you was impossible... it is a creative dynamo whose influence will undoubtedly change the look of American publishing." In the period 1969–1970, a number of underground papers grew more
militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...
and began to openly discuss armed revolution against the state, some going so far as to print manuals for bombing and urging their readers to arm themselves; this trend, however, soon fell silent after the rise and fall of the
Weather Underground The Weather Underground was a Far-left politics, far-left militant organization first active in 1969, founded on the Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan. Originally known as the Weathermen, the group was organiz ...
and the tragic shootings at Kent State.


High school underground press

During this period there was also a widespread underground press movement circulating unauthorized student-published tabloids and mimeographed sheets at hundreds of high schools around the U.S. (In 1968, a survey of 400 high schools in
Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...
found that 52% reported student underground press activity in their school.) Most of these papers put out only a few issues, running off a few hundred copies of each and circulating them only at one local school, although there was one system-wide antiwar high school underground paper produced in New York in 1969 with a 10,000-copy press run. Houston's ''Little Red Schoolhouse,'' a citywide underground paper published by high school students, was founded in 1970. For a time in 1968–1969, the high school underground press had its own press services: FRED (run by
C. Clark Kissinger C. Clark Kissinger (born 1940) was the National Secretary of Students for a Democratic Society in 1964–1965. He visited the People's Republic of China twice during the Cultural Revolution, and is a devoted Maoist. His writings frequently appear i ...
of Students for a Democratic Society, with its base in Chicago schools) and HIPS (High School Independent Press Service, produced by students working out of Liberation News Service headquarters and aimed primarily but not exclusively at
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
schools). These services typically produced a weekly packet of articles and features mailed to subscribing papers around the country; HIPS reported 60 subscribing papers.


G.I. underground press

The G.I. underground press in America produced a few hundred titles during the Vietnam War, some produced by antiwar G.I. coffeehouses, and many of them small, crudely produced, low-circulation mimeographed "zines" written by a draftee editor opposed to the war and circulated locally off-base. Three or four G.I. underground papers had large-scale, national distribution of more than 20,000 copies, including thousands of copies mailed to G.I.'s overseas. These papers were produced with the support of civilian anti-war activists, and had to be disguised to be sent through the mail into Vietnam, where soldiers distributing or even possessing them might be subject to harassment, disciplinary action, or arrest. The idea of smuggling a full-size printing press into South Vietnam was determined to be too dangerous to attempt. As an alternative, a few G.I.'s based in South Vietnam were issued small kits to enable them to produce little
hektograph The hectograph, gelatin duplicator or jellygraph is a printing process that involves transfer of an original, prepared with special inks, to a pan of gelatin or a gelatin pad pulled tight on a metal frame. While the original use of the technolo ...
-type zines.


Technological and financial realities

The boom in the underground press was made practical by the availability of cheap
offset printing 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 ...
, which made it possible to print a few thousand copies of a small tabloid paper for a couple of hundred dollars, which a sympathetic printer might extend on credit. Paper was cheap, and many printing firms around the country had over-expanded during the 1950s and had excess capacity on their offset web presses, which could be negotiated for at bargain rates. Most papers operated on a shoestring budget, pasting up camera-ready copy on layout sheets on the editor's kitchen table, with labor performed by unpaid, non-union volunteers. Typesetting costs, which at the time were wiping out many established big city papers, were avoided by typing up copy on a rented or borrowed IBM Selectric typewriter to be pasted-up by hand. As one observer commented with only slight hyperbole, students were financing the publication of these papers out of their lunch money.


Syndicates and news services

In mid-1966, the cooperative Underground Press Syndicate (UPS) was formed at the instigation of Walter Bowart, the publisher of another early paper, the '' East Village Other''. The UPS allowed member papers to freely reprint content from any of the other member papers. During this period, there were also a number of left-wing political periodicals with concerns similar to those of the underground press. Some of these periodicals joined the Underground Press Syndicate to gain services such as microfilming, advertising, and the free exchange of articles and newspapers. Examples include '' The Black Panther'' (the paper of the
Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Cali ...
,
Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
), and ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...
'' (New York City), both of which had national distribution. Almost from the outset, UPS supported and distributed
underground comix Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...
strips to its member papers. Some of the cartoonists syndicated by UPS included
Robert Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American cartoonist and musician who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contem ...
, Jay Lynch,
The Mad Peck John PeckBerke, Ben"Providence's Mad Peck receives little recognition, and wants even less: Counterculture artist, archivist's job description falls somewhere between 'renaissance man' and 'hustler,'"''Providence Journal'' (Oct 20, 2016).l a.k.a. ...
's ''Burn of the Week'',
Ron Cobb Ronald Ray Cobb (September 21, 1937 – September 21, 2020) was an American-Australian artist. In addition to his work as an editorial cartoonist, he contributed to major films including '' Dark Star'' (1974), ''Star Wars'' (1977), '' Alien'' (197 ...
, and
Frank Stack Frank Huntington Stack (born October 31, 1937 in Houston, Texas) is an American underground cartoonist and fine artist. Working under the name Foolbert Sturgeon to avoid persecution for his work while living in the Bible Belt, Stack published ...
."Special Collections and Rare Books: Frank Stack Collection,"
University of Missouri Libraries. Accessed Dec. 29, 2016.
The Rip Off Press Syndicate was launched 1973 to compete in selling underground comix content to the underground press and student publications.Fox, M. Steven
"Rip Off Comix — 1977-1991 / Rip Off Press,"
Comixjoint. Retrieved Dec. 5, 2022.
Each Friday, the company sent out a distribution sheet with the strips it was selling, by such cartoonists as Gilbert Shelton,
Bill Griffith William Henry Jackson Griffith (born January 20, 1944) is an American cartoonist who signs his work Bill Griffith and Griffy. He is best known for his surreal comedy, surreal daily comic strip ''Zippy the Pinhead, Zippy''. The catchphrase "Are w ...
,
Joel Beck Joel Beck (May 7, 1943 – September 14, 1999) was a San Francisco Bay Area artist and cartoonist. His comic book, ''Lenny of Laredo'', one of the earliest underground comic books of the 1960s, was the first underground comic book published ...
, Dave Sheridan, Ted Richards, and Harry Driggs. The Liberation News Service (LNS), co-founded in the summer of 1967 by Ray Mungo and
Marshall Bloom Marshall Irving Bloom (July 16, 1944 – November 1, 1969) was an American journalist and activist, best known as co-founder in 1967 of the Liberation News Service, the "Associated Press" of the underground press. Early life and education Marsh ...
, "provided coverage of events to which most papers would have otherwise had no access." In a similar vein, John Berger, Lee Marrs, and others co-founded
Alternative Features Service Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...
, Inc. in 1970 to supply the underground and college press, as well as
independent radio Independent radio indicates a radio station that is run in a manner different from usual for the country it broadcasts in. In countries where there exist government-run radio stations that served as the primary or only the variety of licensed broa ...
stations, with syndicated press materials that especially highlighted the creation of alternative institutions, such as free clinics, people's banks, free universities, and alternative housing. By 1973, many underground papers had folded, at which point the Underground Press Syndicate acknowledged the passing of the undergrounds and renamed itself the Alternative Press Syndicate (APS). After a few years, APS also foundered, to be supplanted in 1978 by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.


Controversies

One of the most notorious underground newspapers to join UPS and rally activists, poets, and artists by giving them an uncensored voice, was the '' NOLA Express'' in New Orleans. Started by Robert Head and Darlene Fife as part of political protests and extending the "mimeo revolution" by protest and freedom-of-speech poets during the 1960s, ''NOLA Express'' was also a member of the
Committee of Small Magazine Editors and Publishers Richard Ward Morris (1939–August 28, 2003) was an American author, editor, and poet. He published more than 20 books in his lifetime, many of which were written to "explain the intricacies of science to the general public". His literary sty ...
(COSMEP). These two affiliations with organizations that were often at cross-purposes made ''NOLA Express'' one of the most radical and controversial publications of the counterculture movement. Part of the controversy about ''NOLA Express'' included graphic photographs and illustrations of which many even in today's society would be banned as pornographic.
Charles Bukowski Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted ...
's syndicated column, ''Notes of a Dirty Old Man,'' ran in ''NOLA Express'', and Francisco McBride's illustration for the story "The Fuck Machine" was considered sexist, pornographic, and created an uproar. All of this controversy helped to increase the readership and bring attention to the political causes that editors Fife and Head supported.


Harassment and intimidation

Many of the papers faced official harassment on a regular basis; local police repeatedly raided and busted up the offices of ''
Dallas Notes ''Dallas Notes'' was a biweekly underground press, underground newspaper published in Dallas, Texas from 1967 to 1970, and edited by Stoney Burns (penname of Brent Lasalle Stein; 1942–2011), whose father owned a printing company in Dallas. Init ...
'' and jailed editor Stoney Burns on drug charges; charged Atlanta's '' Great Speckled Bird'' and others with obscenity; arrested street vendors; and pressured local printers not to print underground papers. In Austin, the regents at the University of Texas sued ''The Rag'' to prevent circulation on campus but the
American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". ...
successfully defended the paper's First Amendment rights before the U.S. Supreme Court. In an apparent attempt to shut down ''The Spectator'' in Bloomington, Indiana, editor James Retherford was briefly imprisoned for alleged violations of the Selective Service laws; his conviction was overturned and the prosecutors were rebuked by a federal judge. Drive-by shootings, firebombings, break-ins, and trashings were carried out on the offices of many underground papers around the country, fortunately without causing any fatalities. The offices of Houston's '' Space City!'' were bombed and its windows repeatedly shot out. In Houston, as in many other cities, the attackers, never identified, were suspected of being off-duty military or police personnel, or members of the
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Ca ...
or Minuteman organizations. Some of the most violent attacks were carried out against the underground press in San Diego. In 1976 the ''
San Diego Union ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' a ...
'' reported that the attacks in 1971 and 1972 had been carried out by a right-wing paramilitary group calling itself the Secret Army Organization, which had ties to the local office of the FBI. The U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
(FBI) conducted surveillance and disruption activities on the underground press in the United States, including a campaign to destroy the alternative agency Liberation News Service. As part of its
COINTELPRO COINTELPRO ( syllabic abbreviation derived from Counter Intelligence Program; 1956–1971) was a series of covert and illegal projects actively conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrati ...
designed to discredit and infiltrate radical New Left groups, the FBI also launched phony underground newspapers such as the ''Armageddon News'' at
Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship campus of Indiana University and, with over 40,000 students, its largest camp ...
, ''The Longhorn Tale'' at the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
, and the ''Rational Observer'' at American University in Washington, D.C. The FBI also ran the Pacific International News Service in San Francisco, the Chicago Midwest News, and the New York Press Service. Many of these organizations consisted of little more than a post office box and a letterhead, designed to enable the FBI to receive exchange copies of underground press publications and send undercover observers to underground press gatherings.


Decline of the underground press

By the end of 1972, with the end of the draft and the winding down of the Vietnam War, there was increasingly little reason for the underground press to exist. A number of papers passed out of existence during this time; among the survivors a newer and less polemical view toward middle-class values and working within the system emerged. The underground press began to evolve into the socially conscious, lifestyle-oriented alternative media that currently dominates this form of weekly
print media Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets. Broadcast media transmit information ...
in North America. In 1973, the landmark
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
decision in '' Miller v. California'' re-enabled local obscenity prosecutions after a long hiatus. This sounded the death knell for much of the remaining underground press (including
underground comix Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...
), largely by making the local head shops which stocked underground papers and comix in communities around the country more vulnerable to prosecution. ''
The Georgia Straight ''The Georgia Straight'' is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Overstory Media Group. Often known simply as ''The Straight'', it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools ...
'' outlived the underground movement, evolving into an
alternative weekly An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting ...
still published today; ''Fifth Estate'' survives as an
anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...
magazine. '' The Rag'' – which was published for 11 years in Austin (1966–1977) – was revived in 2006 as an online publication, ''
The Rag Blog ''The Rag'' was an underground newspaper published in Austin, Texas from 1966–1977. The weekly paper covered political and cultural topics that the conventional press ignored, such as the growing antiwar movement, the sexual revolution, gay l ...
'', which now has a wide following in the progressive blogosphere and whose contributors include many veterans of the original underground press. Given the nature of alternative journalism as a subculture, some staff members from underground newspapers became staff on the newer alternative weeklies, even though there was seldom institutional continuity with management or ownership. An example is the transition in Denver from the underground '' Chinook'', to '' Straight Creek Journal'', to ''
Westword ''Westword'' is a free digital and print media publication based in Denver, Colorado. ''Westword'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue cir ...
'', an alternative weekly still in publication. Some underground and alternative reporters, cartoonists, and artists moved on to work in corporate media or in academia.


Lists of underground press papers


United States

More than a thousand underground newspapers were published in the United States during the Vietnam War. The following is a short list of the more widely circulated, longer-lived and notable titles. For a longer, more comprehensive listing sorted by states, see the long list of underground newspapers.


U.S. military G.I. papers

See Table: GI Underground Press During the Vietnam War (U.S. Military)


Canada

* '' Canada Goose'',
Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anc ...
,
Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
* ''
The Georgia Straight ''The Georgia Straight'' is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Overstory Media Group. Often known simply as ''The Straight'', it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools ...
'',
Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...
,
British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...
* ''Guerilla'',
Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
* '' Harbinger'', Toronto, Ontario * ''
Logos ''Logos'' (, ; grc, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive reasoning. Aristo ...
'',
Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
,
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...
* '' Loving Couch Press'',
Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...
,
Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Win ...
* ''Mainmise'' (1970–1978), Montreal, Quebec * '' Octopus'',
Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
, Ontario (a.k.a. ''Canadian Free Press'', ''Ottawa's Free Press'') * '' Pop-See-Cul'', Montreal, Quebec * ''Sexus'' (1967–1968), and ''Allez chier'' (1969), Montreal, Quebec * ''Yorkville Yawn'' and ''Satyrday'', Yorkville, Toronto, Ontario


India

* ''Hungry Generation weekly bulletins''.
Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...
(1961–1965) The Hungry Generation was a literary movement in the
Bengali language Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second most widely spoken o ...
launched by what is known today as the ''Hungryalist quartet'', ''i.e.'' Shakti Chattopadhyay, Malay Roy Choudhury, Samir Roychoudhury and Debi Roy (''alias'' Haradhon Dhara), during the 1960s in
Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
, India. Due to their involvement in this avant garde cultural movement, the leaders lost their jobs and were jailed by the incumbent government. They challenged contemporary ideas about literature and contributed significantly to the evolution of the language and idiom used by contemporaneous artists to express their feelings in literature and painting.Dr Uttam Das, Reader, Calcutta University, in his dissertation 'Hungry Shruti and Shastravirodhi Andolan' This movement is characterized by expression of closeness to
nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...
and sometimes by tenets of Gandhianism and Proudhonianism. Although it originated at Patna, Bihar and was initially based in
Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
, it had participants spread over North Bengal,
Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the eas ...
and Benares. According to Dr.
Shankar Bhattacharya Shankar may refer to: People *Shankar (name), including a list of people with the name * Sankar (writer) (Mani Shankar Mukherjee), Bengali writer * L. Shankar, Indian violinist * S. Shankar, Indian film director commonly credited as Shankar * Sank ...
, Dean at Assam University, as well as Aryanil Mukherjee, editor of Kaurab Literary Periodical, the movement influenced
Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Genera ...
as much as it influenced
American poetry American poetry refers to the poetry of the United States. It arose first as efforts by American colonists to add their voices to English poetry in the 17th century, well before the constitutional unification of the Thirteen Colonies (although ...
through the Beat poets who visited Calcutta, Patna and Benares during the 1960–1970s. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, now a professor and editor, was associated with the Hungry generation movement. Shakti Chattopadhyay, Saileswar Ghosh, Subhas Ghosh left the movement in 1964. More than 100 manifestos were issued during 1961–1965. Malay's poems have been published by Prof P. Lal from his Writers Workshop publication.
Howard McCord Howard McCord (November 3, 1932 – November 3, 2022) was an American writer. He was an emeritus professor of English at Bowling Green State University, where he was director of the creative writing program for most of the past quarter-century. ...
published Malay Roy Choudhury's controversial poem ''Prachanda Boidyutik Chhutar'' i.e., "Stark Electric Jesus from Washington State University" in 1965. The poem has been translated into several
languages Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
of the world; into
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
by Carl Weissner, into Spanish by Margaret Randall, into
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''
by Ameeq Hanfee, into
Assamese Assamese may refer to: * Assamese people, a socio-ethnolinguistic identity of north-eastern India * People of Assam, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious people of Assam * Assamese language, one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan language ...
by Manik Dass, into Gujarati by Nalin Patel, into
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...
by Rajkamal Chaudhary, and into English by Howard McCord.


In Italy

* (
Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. Th ...
) * (
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4  ...
) * (
Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. Th ...
)


In the Netherlands

Clandestine press in the Netherlands is related to the second World War, which ran from 10 May 1940 until 5 May 1945 in the Netherlands. * See the list of 1300 Dutch illegal WW2 newspapers on Dutch Wikipedia * See also on Dutch Wikipedia :* List of places of publication of Dutch illegal WW2 newspapers :* List of printers and publishers of Dutch illegal WW2 newspapers :* List of legally continued Dutch WW2 newspapers


See also

* Alternative media ** Alternative media (U.S. political left) **
Alternative media (U.S. political right) The term right-wing alternative media in the United States usually refers to internet, talk radio, print, and television journalism. They are defined by their presentation of opinions from a conservative or right wing point of view and polit ...
* Clandestine literature * List of underground newspapers (by country and state) *
List of underground newspapers of the 1960s counterculture This is a partial list of the local underground newspapers launched during the Sixties era of the hippie/psychedelic/youth/counterculture/New Left/antiwar movements, approximately 1965–1972. This list includes periodically appearing papers of ge ...
* News agency (alternative) * , Italian alternative editor) *
Jeff Sharlet (Vietnam antiwar activist) Jeff Sharlet (1942–1969), a Vietnam veteran, was a leader of the GI resistance movement during the Vietnam War and the founding editor of ''Vietnam GI''. David Cortright, a major chronicler of the Vietnam GI protest movement wrote, "''Vietnam GI ...
* , Italian underground activist) * , (co-editor, Italian ''Re Nudo'')


Further reading

* Leamer, Lawrence. ''The Paper Revolutionaries''. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1972. * Lewes, James. ''Protest and Survive: Underground GI Newspapers during the Vietnam War''. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2003. . * Mackenzie, Angus, "Sabotaging the Dissident Press", ''Columbia Journalism Review'', March–April 1981, pp. 57–63, Center for Investigative Reporting, 1983. * Mungo, Raymond. ''Famous Long Ago: My Life and Hard Times With the Liberation News Service''. Boston: Beacon Press, 1970. * Peck, Abe. ''Uncovering the Sixties''. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1985. * Rips, Geoffrey, ''The Campaign Against the Underground Press'', San Francisco, City Lights Books, 1981. * Verzuh, Ron, "Underground Times: Canada's Flower-Child Revolutionaries", Toronto: Deneau, 1989. * Wachsberger, Ken, editor. ''Voices From the Underground''. Tempe, AZ: Mica Press, 1993.


Notes


References


Citations


Sources


"The Underground GI Press: Pens Against the Pentagon,"
''Commonweal''. Reprinted in ''
Duck Power GI's Against Fascism was a small but formative organization formed within the U.S. Navy during the years of conscription and the Vietnam War. The group developed in mid-1969 out of a number of sailors requesting adequate quarters, but coalesced ...
'' vol. 1, no. 4.
''Voices from the Underground (Vol. 1): Insider Histories of the Vietnam Era Underground Press''


* Holhut, Randolph T. ttp://www.brasscheck.com/seldes/history.html "A Brief History of American Alternative Journalism in the Twentieth Century,"BrassCheck.com. Retrieved Dec. 15, 2022. * Dreyer, Thorne and Victoria Smith
"The Movement and the New Media,"
Liberation News Service (1969).


External links

* ; U.S. underground press
Underground/Alternative Newspapers History and Geography
Maps and databases showing over 2,000 underground/alternative newspapers between 1965 and 1975 in the U.S. From the Mapping American Social Movements project at the University of Washington. * A number of libraries have extensive
microfilm Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original document size. F ...
collections of underground newspapers. For example, th
University of Oregon
library has a collection that consists of mostly, but not exclusively North American underground papers.
Chicano Newspapers and Periodicals 1966-1979
Maps and charts showing over 300 Chicano newspapers from the 1960s and 70s
"Voices from the Underground," an exhibition of the North American underground press of the 1960s; includes a substantial gallery of color images

A digitally scanned archive of the first twelve issues (1966-67) of ''The Rag'', from Austin, Texas

Articles about the underground press at ''The Rag Blog''


(While ''The Avatar'' shared its design approach and many social concerns with other underground papers of the time, in one important respect it was completely atypical: it served as a platform for self-proclaimed "world saviour" Mel Lyman, leader of the Fort Hill Community.)
A collection of ''Space City News'' covers
by underground artist
Bill Narum Bill Narum (January 11, 1947 – November 18, 2009) was an artist, illustrator, and Texas counter-culture icon known for his work in popular entertainment, and for being one of the few non-natives to have lived with the Tarahumara tribe of norther ...

The website for the film ''Sir! No Sir!''
has an extensive collection of primary source materials from the GI underground press
''The Truth''
, a specimen high school underground paper from 1969 ; U.K. underground press

by Gerry Carlin and Mark Jones
''International Times'' archive

''OZ magazine'', London, 1967-1973
online at the University of Wollongong Library ; Australian underground press
''The Digger'', 1972-1975
online at the University of Wollongong Library
''Nexus'' magazine (Australia)

''OZ magazine'', Sydney, 1963-1969
online at the University of Wollongong Library
Ozit.org
— history of ''OZ Magazine'' (archived site) ; European underground press

at stampamusicale.altervista.org


Interviews


Underground press historian Sean Stewart on Rag Radio
Interviewed by Thorne Dreyer, August 31, 2010 (57:17)
Historian John McMillian, author of ''Smoking Typewriters: The Sixties Underground Press and the Rise of Alternative Media in America'' on Rag Radio
Interviewed by Thorne Dreyer, March 4, 2011 (42:18)
Thorne Dreyer's 24 hour-long Rag Radio interviews with veterans of the Sixties underground press
{{DEFAULTSORT:Underground press Alternative press Alternative media