PEACE PRESS Lives again in Venice
By Eric
Ahlberg
What do Timothy Leary, Huey
Newton, Brian Wilson and the Free Venice Collective have in common? The answer
is that they were all clients of the Peace Press, an alternative print shop
which produced posters, books and other printed matter from 1967-1987.
Though located in LA, and later Culver
City, Peace Press was in many ways an extension of the Venice scene. Almost all
of the Press founders and early workers lived in Venice and were tied into the
politics of the community, as were many of the artists whose work rolled off the
Peace Press machines. The Press printed posters and programs for the early
Venice Canal Festivals, the Free Venice organization and the Venice Fox Theater,
as well as for numerous other Venice-based groups. And its collective activist
nature reflected the political sensibilities of Venice in the 60s and 70s, a
time of political struggles against the Vietnam War and local battles to
preserve the community.
Peace Press
operated from 1967-1987 a long time for a political collective, a very long time
for an anti-war group, and an extraordinary length of time for a print shop
whose founders did not know how to print. Those founders were anti-war activists
from SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), VDC (Vietnam Day Committee) and
the Resistance who were looking for a way to print materials about the Vietnam
War. Like many organizations in that pre-digital, pre-Xerox era, the three
groups, sharing an office in Westwood, depended on a mimeograph. But mimeo
machines produced fuzzy copies and could only run limited quantities. Commercial
printers were not a viable option; they needed long lead times, cost too much,
and they often refused to print the organizations anti-establishment, anti-draft
materials.
SDS/VDC activist (and still
a Venice resident) Jerry Palmer, then a UCLA graduate student, had envisioned a
Peace Press for the movement ever since he visited a commercial shop to print
some peace seals he had designed in 1965. The box of offset press parts that he
brought back to the SDS/VDC/Resistance office one afternoon in 1967 gave first
life to that dream. Jerry assembled the small press, learned how to run it, and
he and others began printing the organizations mobilization leaflets and the
thousands of flyers that Resistance members handed out at induction centers
every morning.
Sometime later, the Women s
Strike for Peace, frustrated in their efforts to find a shop to print their
Draft Law booklet, became the first of many organizations to bring their
materials to be printed.
In those early
years, the Press changed location frequently, as the FBI, local authorities and
right-wing landlords took notice of their activities and had them kicked them
out. For some time it operated out of two garages. By then Peace Press was
becoming a distinct entity of its own, separate from the organizations that had
spawned it.
That evolution peaked in
1970, when the Press purchased its first large press and set up business on La
Cienega Boulevard. Within a year there were almost a dozen workers, earning
subsistence or no wages, committed to offering low-cost printing to the
community. In the process, they forged themselves into a collective that worked
and studied and played together.
Unlike traditional print shops, Peace
Press involved community groups often women and people of color-- in the
production of their printing work, teaching skills such as layout, paste-up, and
camera work, as well as how to run the presses. Hundreds of individuals and
organizations brought their jobs to the Press during this time, including the
Black Panther Party, Chicano Moratorium, Free Angela Davis Committee, Teamsters
United Rank and File, Free Venice Collective, Malcolm X Committee, National
Association for Irish Justice, Harriet Tubman Bookstore, and many peace and
justice coalitions. The Press became the hub of print production for the full
spectrum of alternative social, political and cultural organizations in the
area.
After a suspicious fire destroyed most
of its equipment and supplies one night in 1972, the press came back to life
after only one day, due to an outpouring of community support, including offers
to share facilities and
equipment.
Almost a year later, with
insurance benefits in hand, Peace Press moved into its last, most permanent,
home in Culver City. During the Press 15 years there, as the Vietnam War ended
and the issues of the times changed, the Press also went through a
metamorphosis. It evolved into a business printing high-quality commercial work
--primarily from rock promoters, artists, musicians, and local theaters. A
publishing component was also added, which produced almost 50 books including
Timothy Leary s writings, alternative energy and healing arts manuals, and a
history of nonviolence in the U.S.
Still the Press kept its alternative
socially-conscious nature in what it printed as well as how it conducted
business. Anything considered racist or sexist, would be rejected, no matter how
lucrative the job might be. Structured as a worker-owned collective, most
decisions continued to be made collectively and everyone got the same wages
regardless of skill or job position. And the Press continued to print at low or
no cost for virtually every progressive cause taken up in LA. The Pentagon
Papers Defense Committee, the United Farm Workers, Alliance for Survival,
American Indian Movement, and groups advocating solidarity with Central America
all had posters and leaflets printed at the
Press.
Peace Press closed down in 1987,
but its legacy continues. The materials it produced continue to speak to the
issues of today. Once again our government has involved us in an unpopular war;
environmental degradation is escalating; gentrification and economic injustices
continue to deprive low-income people of basic needs; and civil rights for
women, people of color, and gays and lesbians still need defending.
The Peace Press exhibit is presented
at SPARC:
685 Venice Boulevard; 822-9560
from September 10 - October 9.
EXHIBIT
HOURS: Monday - Thursday, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM; Fridays: 10:00 AM to 9:00
PM;
Saturdays-Sunday, 1:00 PM to 5
PM
Opening Reception September 10,
6-9pm
Posted: Thu - September 1, 2005 at 02:40 PM