In 1988 representatives from fifteen progressive printshops formed the Progressive Printers Network (PPN). The Network allows member shops to share experience and knowledge, to support and assist each other and to take on larger projects as a group.

Most of the shops in the network originated in the 1970’s out of the organizing efforts of the anti-war, women’s, civil rights and environmental movements. Without these shops, many progressive groups would have had little or no access to printing. Some shops began as all volunteer groups, others as collectives. Most of the current shops in the network have become worker-owned coops, branching out into commercial printing along with social action work. The PPN continues to play an integral role in strengthening the progressive movement.

In 1994, The Progressive Printers Network worked with the Center for the Study of Political Graphics (http://www.politicalgraphics.org/) to produce “Freedom of the Press”, an exhibit which honors the historic role of political printers and the causes and issues they have helped to make visible. The show documents graphic expressions of political issues and opinions and also acknowledges the progressive printshops’ approach to organizing for social change through collective or cooperative work.

 

 

Members of the Progressive Printers Network:

Red Sun Press
Boston, MA
www.redsunpress.com

Collective Copies
Amherst, MA
www.collectivecopies.com

Community Printers
Santa Cruz, CA
www.comprinters.com

Salsedo Press
Chicago, IL

Grass Roots Press
Raleigh, NC

Inkworks
Berkeley, CA
www.inkworks.igc.org

Urban Press
Seattle, WA
www.urbanpressseattle.com