Press Releases for Anarchists

A good press release could be an excellent tool to promote your campaigns and activities and serve an important role in the efforts to include anti-authoritarian left ideas in the political debates, bringing your politics out there to the general public. But, to achieve that, you need to get it right, and from experience, this is often not the case. This guide and template was created to help you expand your skills in this field.

Should we have a press release for it?
The first question you need to ask yourself is if your activities are appropriate for a press release. They can be an excellent tool to inject your own narrative on your actions and politics into the media, but they are not suitable for all activities. This could be based on many factors, such as the type of activity you are engaging in, its legality or lack of it, the privacy needs of the members of your group and non-members you are working with, and the target group you are aiming to deliver the message to by your actions. It is very important to ensure everyone involved in your actions is on the same page with the level of publicity you will be aiming for, and it is something your group should discuss before coming up with any PR strategy. People can have different levels of comfort when it comes to sharing their activities, legal or not, based on many factors such as their immigration status, experience of racialisation, gender, public profile, or for no reason at all. Respect it and ensure that no matter what PR decision you take as a group, there will be space in it for various levels of public exposure if circumstances allow it.

If you are engaging in potentially law-breaking activities, a press release may not be appropriate. Think about it carefully and discuss it in your group, allowing everyone a space to voice their concerns and needs. If in doubt, seek legal advice BEFORE releasing anything to the big bad world.

Similarly, you may not want a press release if your group activities involve working in solidarity with external parties and your primary goal is not as much bringing attention to your activities as it is just trying to improve the world around you. Take extra care and thought if you plan to report on things such as your work with refugee people, survivors of violence, racialised or otherwise marginalised people, homeless people and other groups. Always seek informed consent to share information! This should be your main rule anyway.

Who is the press release for?
Another question your group needs to answer is: who is the press release for? Will you be sending it to the newsdesks of the mainstream media, or is it intended only for the activist community and as such, it will be shared only in our own news environment? The former will potentially allow you a greater reach, especially if you are interested in reaching the general population with your message (which may or may not be the case based on the specific activity you are engaging in). The latter also has its benefits in the way that you will be contributing to the creation and growth of our own media, which is an important step in creating platforms we fully control and can use exactly as we need or want to.

Both these have potential benefits, but they also require different vocabulary and tones. Think about who your target audience is and adjust accordingly. If you are addressing the activist circle or otherwise people with insider knowledge of the issue you are describing, including associated with it vocabulary, you can get away with writing something based on the assumption that people will understand things without an in-depth explanation. If you are writing for the general public, imagine you are explaining things to someone who has no knowledge of the subject and make it accessible to them. It really helps if, before sending the text out, you ask someone with no knowledge of the issues you are describing to read it and tell you if they got it.

Similarly, if you are addressing the mainstream media, stick to the language and argument they want to hear. There is no point in sending, say, The Guardian, a press release full of insider talk, they will just bin it.

When to send a press release?

The short answer is: in a timely manner, but ensuring that publicity will not undermine what you are planning to do, or have done already. DO NOT send press releases about planned direct actions before they happen, that’s just silly and can influence the success of your action. But DO send a press release before a demo/other happening you are organising and are hoping to convince as many people as possible to turn up to it.

From experience, the best time to send a press release about a direct action you undertook is as soon as things reach the level where there is no danger you can be stopped in whatever you planned. A court case you want to inform about? Prepare a number of press releases beforehand to be ready for all outcomes of the case, and release the appropriate one as soon as the verdict is known. And yes, I know it sounds cold: the thing is, however, that the sooner you release a press communication on a court case or other high profile event, the better chance you have to enforce your narrative over the narrative of your opponents, and in the case of breaking news events such as court verdicts, every minute counts. So, if the court case goes your way, then having a press release ready will allow you to celebrate is sooner. If it goes wrong: having it ready would allow you more time and headspace to figure out what to do now to mitigate the damage/prepare prison solidarity.

Organising a demo/week or solidarity and such, and you want everyone to participate? Start press releases weeks in advance, you may want to consider sending them out in regular intervals.

Remember that news expires, and as such, if you delay a press release for too long, you will be way less successful in getting anyone to publish your news.

Avoid giving people celebrity status
In order to avoid informal hierarchies and attract people interested mainly in publicity, avoid the situation where somebody would assume the role of your spokesperson long term. This role should be rotary! Also, it is always best to give a platform, in your press release and beyond, to those directly affected by the issues you are fighting for or against rather than clog the said platform with professional “media people”. Avoid those people like a plague and thank me later.

MAKE IT FACTUALLY CORRECT

There is no need to make stuff up or be aspirational with it, if you are convinced your cause is worthwhile, then it should mean you know exactly why is that. If you need to use sources, for atheism's sake, make sure they are reliable.

Remember: the facts are on our side, it it the far right who needs to make shit up to present their case.■

Zosia Brom

Zosia “Scourge of anarcho-terfs” Brom, is a life long anti-fascist and anarchist organiser. Former editor of Freedom, Zosia dodged giving us a blurb. Find essays here: theanarchistlibrary.org/category/author/zosia-brom