Skill Level: 🐾🐾 Advanced DIY
What This Tool Is
When regimes control the media, we print our own. Underground presses, hand-made zines, and clandestine flyers have powered every resistance movement from the French Resistance in WWII to ACT UP in the ’80s. This guide shows you how to get the word out even when Big Brother censors the airwaves.
Why It Matters
- Authoritarians fear paper. They can ban websites and TV channels, but a flyer slipped under a door still spreads.
- Print builds permanence. Tweets vanish; a zine can circulate for months.
- History proves it. The Soviet samizdat, Chile under Pinochet, even punk fanzines — all kept resistance alive when official media was muzzled.
Step-by-Step Instructions
1. Pick Your Medium
- Zines (booklets, folded pages) for deep dives.
- Flyers or posters for fast slogans + calls to action.
- Stickers and stencils for maximum visibility.
2. Stay Anonymous
- Don’t print at work, school, or your home printer if you’re at risk.
- Use cash at copy shops, or set up community-owned printers.
- Rotate volunteers — never let one person be the “printer cat.”
3. Design for Impact
- Big fonts, bold art, snappy slogans.
- QR codes to safe websites for deeper info.
- Black-and-white works best: cheaper, easier to reproduce, less traceable.
4. Distribute Smart
- Cafes, laundromats, libraries, bathrooms — anywhere people pause.
- Slip into books, under doors, or onto bulletin boards.
- Always work in pairs when flyering at night for safety.
5. Archive & Share
- Keep digital PDFs on encrypted drives for backup.
- Share zines at community events, protests, and mutual aid hubs.
- Create a local “zine library” to pass down tactics across generations.
Closing Rally from Resistance Kitty
They can muzzle the press, but they can’t shred every flyer. Printing is power — a physical claw mark against censorship. Every zine is a spark, every flyer a scratch in the facade of fascism. Print boldly, distribute quietly, and keep the underground alive.
Sources
- Zine Library – What is a Zine?
- Samizdat History – Soviet Underground Publishing
- ACT UP Oral History Project