Organise Developments into 2025

Hello subscribers, readers, everyone, apologies that it's been some time since we gave a general update and have in fact quite quiet in general. Hopefully the following addresses the reasons why and what we intend to do about it.

The past few years has seen Organise go from being mouthpiece of the AF, sent out to a handful of jotted down addresses, read by anarchists and the odd bored bloke on the bus and mostly left in boxes under beds and at the back of closets, to being a more dynamic platform for anarchist thought and theory which is out of stock before we can post it and I dare say is actually read, and not even just by the block bloc choir.

However through 2024, we have slipped into bit of inconsistency with the online reporting and have hit a financial dead end with the printed materials. It is apparent we need to make some very critical changes to how we operate, and not just to keep the lights on but to make Organise a better tool to communicate the beautiful idea to an even wider group of people, in Britain and beyond.

The Problems.
The first issue is that the cost of production has become unsustainable. The Patreon subscribers just about cover the cost of production for their individual copies but the rest of the production run, whether intended for wholesale, direct sales of solidarity / administration present a huge economic burden.

Printing costs have doubled this year, and that is after doubling since 2020. Most similar magazines cost significantly more, after over double the price. Keeping the magazine at a very cheap and accessible price is of critical importance to us. Anarchist make terrible capitalists.

Secondly, and more broadly, Anarchism and by extension the AF, is not the media movement it was. Where once we could rely on a series of report backs, opinion pieces and theory crafting, this wealth of media has become more of a trickle. This is down to three factors.

First, the anarchist movement is divided and where there are content creators, they tend to be self-siloed and even amongst friendly organisations there is a lack of content sharing and information dispersal.

Second, everyone is broke. The economic situation in the UK is dire, times are tough especially for social radicals and minoritised communities. Everyone is too busy surviving capitalism to spend time writing up pieces and those who are by necessity building small base platforms so they can get some return from this. This stands for members of the editorial collective also who have seen their financial situation change and find themselves unable to provide the tens of hours a week it takes maintaining and producing new media.

Thirdly, As a society, we have become reliant on social media platforms for expression, what used to be a screed on Cops in Brighton sent into the AF, to Gagged, or Schnews, is now a 25 comment post on Twitter that may or may not do numbers. Our media outlets have not become more accessible.

Finally and being honest, we're a bunch of anarchists, doing anarchist things, everyone of the editorial collective is busy with a dozen projects, life stuff and keeping the bills paid. Still, keeping Anarchist time is not helping us. We need a regular format and should keep to it.


The Proposed Solutions.
Financially options here would seem to be either we lower the quality of production or charge more. Both of which we have been persistently remiss to do.

So what we've decided to experiment with through 2024-2025 is to continue to produce two publications a year, the first being a fully loaded 100 page Issue of Organise ahead of MayDay, this would come with all the trimmings, poster, zines, stickers etc and the second would be a stripped down A5 theory zine released in time for the Anarchist Bookfair in London, essentially taking over “Spindrift”.

One of the editors noted that this is similar to what Class War used to do by having a separate release of the “heavy stuff” alongside their usual mag.

Thinking about content and we're going to begin exploring other forms of media. If we can't produce it ourselves, solicit interest from those who do. Talk to ongoing podcasters and streamers about syndicating or joining the platform. Medium writers and website pundits? Give them upload access and develop a “Contributors” community on our platforms. We believe this is in the best spirit of decentralisation and providing a more active Anarchist media space.

We have for years banded around the idea of making a shared platform for a “International of Anarchist Publishers”, a space in which member organisations and non-members alike can share their media with our publications with the aim of sharing anarchist news from around the world in a open and simple format which would be focused on distributing anarchist journalism in a none public facing manner. Essentially Anarchist Reuters. We're going to draw up an outline of how this would work over the next few months and then reach out to fellow publishers and started building the platform ahead of 2025.

Finally, and perhaps controversially, we're going start paying contributors. Even if this is a nominal fee at first, We're going to direct 25% of the subscriber income towards a fund for those who spend hours of their life contributing our labour towards the magazine. Instead of operating as payment for work, this will be a pool of shared resource, made available to anyone whose contribution is green lit. No questions, no barriers. “Tick the box and leave your payment details and we'll send you X amount or contribute it to a cause of your choosing”.

Regarding X amount, we've seen £25 per 1000 words being used commercially which seems absurd. Similar publications to our own with more financial clout seem to operate at a minimum of £50-75 for a reportage piece. This might vary depending on independent research etc. With this in mind and given we are a non-profit, acommerical endeavour, I think our suggested amounts should look something like £15 for syndicated media, £25 per 500w event reporting, review, opinion piece, £50 per researched theory and analysis, with £100 available for in-depth pieces we've lined up. These numbers are the starting grid and we'll constantly develop and adapt them as we A: Have access to more funds and B: Find out what works best with contributors.

We would continue to solicit and share voluntary contributions but provide this pool of funds as a non-conditional option for contributors.

Conclusions

So yeah, this is the plan. Subscribers (including those who unsubscribe following this post) will get a copy of the new “Spin drift” theory zine ahead of bookfair and Organise 101 will come out next year.

We've also got plans in the works to improve the website posting habits, embrace new members to the editorial collective itself and create a broader platform for contribution and syndication.

Ultimately we're here to share anarchist thought and theory and we believe this is the best step forward. It's at least going to be our next step and we hope you'll stick around for the ride.■

OEC