Writing for Black Flag

The Black Flag collective is getting the new issue together and we are looking for volunteers to write articles, edit, etc. We are also looking for volunteers to join the collective.

Black Flag was founded in 1970 and is the UK's longest running class struggle anarchist journal. We are looking for articles, reviews, etc. from a revolutionary class struggle anarchist (anarcho-syndicalist, anarcho-communist, etc.) on current events, working class history, etc.

We are currently annual (but aim to change that!) and we aim to have the next issue out by the London Anarchist Bookfair in October.

If you are interesting is writing for us, please contact me on libcom or at the Black Flag email: blackflagmag[at]yahoo.co.uk

So if you want to see Black Flagcontinue and have an independent anarchist journal in the UK, then you know what to do.

Finally, we are thinking of changing our format from a 40 page A4 magazine to a A5 sized journal -- what do people think?

Anyway, hope to hear from yous!

A4 kinda sucks compared to A5

A4 kinda sucks compared to A5 so long as there is no size reduction of the words and images and no decrease in the spacing.

Why don't you do it as a

Why don't you do it as a webjournal with PDFs and .mobi versions as well instead of print? It would be a lot cheaper.

Keep it A4 and look to

Keep it A4 and look to distribute it within art and cultural centres as well as workplaces and london shit. Also I'm sure it makes a loss at the moment so why not distribute those loss issues (whatever the number) to working class pubs and other such venues?

Don't stop printing :-)

Just to note that not a

Just to note that not a single libcom person has contacted us about writing -- shame but I cannot say I am too surprised.

Anyway, if you want Black Flag to continue we need people to contribute to writing -- any takers?

Presumably it means people

Presumably it means people don't care if it continues or not.

I think folks writing in

I think folks writing in general these days is a universal (literally) problem. G=Has been for "ideas & action" over here.

I think it might be better to

I think it might be better to explain more clearly what you want and perhaps give examples from previous issues. Personally I have trouble seeing what would go into a yearly publication, I'm pretty sure trying to become more frequent has been an aim for several years. So even if I had an idea then I wouldn't know how to put it together.

You might do better directly contacting people who have written good stuff and asking them about putting together articles. Open callouts like this don't appeal to anybody in particular. It's like the person who sends a group text asking for help moving house: no one shows up. If you ring up a few people and ask them directly then you'll get help.

I can understand that you're trying to be open, but if you're too open then nobody knows precisely what you want. I think it'd be better to be a litle clearer to help people know what to do, they'll almost certainly start negotiating once they've started. "I know you said maximum of 1000 words per article but it's not possible to do this justice in fewer than 1500..."

Aye, basically what Jef says.

Aye, basically what Jef says. From my own experience, it's about commissioning writers by using a bit of cajolery rather than just asking if anyone fancies writing any articles. To be honest, I can think of a million things I'd rather do than write an article for a magazine... but if the editors tell me what they'd like me to write about and twist my arm a bit, then I'll probably write something for them.

Anarcho wrote: Just to note

Anarcho

Just to note that not a single libcom person has contacted us about writing -- shame but I cannot say I am too surprised.

I don't think this sort of passive aggressive tone is particularly helpful. I know personally I find it hard to make enough time to write things, but when I do I just put them on libcom as I know it will get the widest audience. A lot of people here write things for our site, or for Resistance or free news sheets. I think if you want people to write things for print publications nowadays, there has to be a really good reason to do so (Resistance has a clear goal, so there is a good reason to write for this specifically).

What do you see as the purpose of Black Flag today, and why should people write for it specifically?

An editor should come up with

An editor should come up with ideas they want to see in a publication and have some people in mind that they can ask and assist if needed. I definitely understand becoming bitter and cynical about this because its hard to get people to write, but expressing it like that doesn't help anything.

That said, I'm not a UKer, but I would be down to write something if you told me what you're looking for.

Also, where can I view or buy

Also, where can I view or buy the last Issue? I heard there was a review of Lines of Work in there.

Juan Conatz wrote: That

Juan Conatz

That said, I'm not a UKer, but I would be down to write something if you told me what you're looking for.

I PM"d a similar offer to anarcho about 2 weeks ago, but haven't gotten a response as of yet.

For what its worth I've

For what its worth I've written blogs and essay's and once worked freelance for some news websites, but I've never written for a print publication and don't have a clue about the requirements or what you are actually interested in. Class struggle anarchist perspective is incredibly vague. Perhaps you'd get a better response if you gave some guidelines, a list of topics your definitely interested in and perhaps a sample of earlier articles so anyone whose considering it has some idea of what they'd be getting into.

To link this with the discussion about grass roots campaigns I think this attitude of expecting people to commit to the work without giving them any means of support or guidance is a big reason stuff like this fails.

We are leaving it for this

We are leaving it for this year -- we received a few responses, but not many.

We will take the time to consider what we can do -- as opposed to what we would like to do -- given our resources and the level of response we received.

I have responded to the few people who contacted me, btw, letting them know the situation.

If you are interesting in joining the collective as an active (and I stress active) participant, do let me know -- the more people willing to do something, the more likely a new issue will appear (in whatever format)