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Download Rolling Thunder #2 [14MB]

#2 contains articles about the protests against the G8 meeting in Scotland, a retrospective on squatting and resistance culture in northern Europe, an in-depth discussion of subcultural marginality and refusal, an inside report on the workings of current labor unions, a memoir of gender mutiny, and an account of how to establish a squatted community center; other highlights include an intimate reflection on the patterns by which abusive relationships perpetuate themselves and a primer on communications technology for direct action, and much more.

In case any intrepid reviewers require additional assistance, we’ve added a new feature to our reading library: “The Fine Art of Criticism: A How-To Guide for Aspiring Journalists.” This controversial screed originally appeared in the third issue of Rolling Thunder, and remains as relevant today as it was then—however relevant that is.

Tune in next time for the follow-up, “A User’s Guide to Expect Resistance,” a preview of which is pictured above.

2 Pound Media Mail from $2.47 to $2.58
20 Pound Media Mail from $8.59 to $8.88

Flat-Rate Priority Mail Envelope $4.60 to $4.75
Flat-Rate Priority Mail Box $8.95 to $9.30

Flat-Rate Priority Mail International Envelope (Canada) from $8.55 to $9.45
Flat-Rate Priority Mail International Box (Canada) from $21.85 to $22.75

Flat-Rate Priority Mail International Env. (Not-Canada) from $10.45 to $11.35
Flat-Rate Priority Mail International Box (Not-Canada) from $35.15 to $37.00

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*Not all packages get labels, sadly. All Priority Mail orders get them, but International orders don’t—hopefully smoothing out their trip through customs. For Media Mail, envelopes and our smallest box already have fancy printing on them, everything bigger gets a label.

The book is printed on a special heat-set web offset press made just for printing books; this particular press was created a couple years ago just for this printing plant. It’s a multi-million dollar piece of equipment, and is operated primarily by one person, from the console in the photo. He can adjust registration, ink coverage and speed all from the console—it’s pretty amazing and radically different from every other web-press I’ve seen. From left to right: a) the paper is fed from giant rolls into the press, b) it goes through two printing heads (the section in the photo with ‘ZMA’ on it), each printing on the front and back of the paper simultaneously, c) it then goes through a heater unit that dries the ink (the section in the photo with ‘Legacy’ on it), and d) it moves onto a machine that cuts, collates and folds it—more on that part below.

Expect Resistance is 344 pages long and is made up of seven signatures (4×56 + 2×48 + 1×24) that are printed one at a time and then combined together to form the whole book. Each signature requires four plates, as pictured above, one for each color on each side. The plates pictured above are made of flexible aluminum and are wrapped around a metal cylinder on the press; they make a 56-page signature, with 28 pages per side. The plate on top in the photo is the red-ink plate, with a black-ink plate underneath it, and so on.

This is a back view of one of the printing head units, which is closed during operation. This unit is where the red-ink plates for the front and back are housed with an identical unit above it that does the black-ink. During operation, both units are closed and all control and manipulation is done from the console. Both colors and sides are printed inline in one run through the press.

After the paper has been printed and the ink dried in the heating unit, it then moves to the trimmer and collator. If you look closely you can see the giant sheet being trimmed using rotary blades—the sheet in the foreground contains all 56 pages, but the sheet in the background has been trimmed and now only has a 24 page section. The other sections have been trimmed and directed out of sight.

Detail.

Here you can see the three sections being collated together after trimming. One 24-page section on top, an 8-page section in the middle, and a 24-page section on the bottom. After being combined, they are trimmed again and folded together, completing a 56-page signature.

These are the finished signatures coming out of the press. From a roll of paper to these finished signatures, the entire process is done inline and mechanically. Even crazier is, once the press is set-up and adjustments have been made to get the perfect amounts of ink on the plates and fine-tuning the image registration, the printer can print 13,000 signatures an hour—yes, that is 217 a minute or more than three-and-a-half per second.

The finished signatures are collected and strapped between two pieces of wood, prepared for collating and binding. Once all seven signatures are printed they are fed into another giant machine which automatically collates them, saws off the spine for a rough edge, lines the newly-rough spine with PUR glue and binds the signatures together into to the cover. Sadly, I had to leave before that part of the process, so I have no photos.

While they prep the signature and make all the adjustments to get the text and images perfectly rendered on the paper, they have to run the press, albeit at a very slow speed. These ‘make-ready’ signatures are rejected and piled in the recycling bin—here they are, looking so sad, devastated to have been so close to immortality, but not close enough.

Interesting tidbit: This plant and this very printing press were used to print all the North American copies of the last two Harry Potter books. We thought that was pretty awesome.

Small reward for crazy people who read this far down: The books are totally finished and are shipping out from the plant tomorrow. We plan to have the book web page up and accepting orders by Friday night. The books will ship out no later than Tuesday the 4th. Due to unbelievable absurdities, the books have been delayed a week—we now plan to have the book web page up and accepting orders by Friday the 7th. The books will ship out no later than Tuesday the 11th.

“And do you have a better idea? That’s the only name any of us have been able to agree on, and we’ve been arguing for months. If I’m not going to live to see anarchist revolution, let’s at least finish this book. We’ve already had this conversation. I really think it’s the only good option we have.”

“If you’re serious, hear me out about the stickers.”

“Go ahead.”

“It’s going to seem like they were a marketing ploy all along: ‘You read the sticker—now buy the book!’ When we made them, we weren’t talking about a fucking book—they’re supposed to go up next to smashed windows, or in high schools before walkouts. It’s insulting to people who used the stickers in good faith to retroactively turn them into a promotional campaign. I don’t want anyone to feel like a dupe.”

“Don’t think that hasn’t occurred to me—and sure, it sucks. But we don’t have any other titles for this, at least nothing that would work. And really, it sounds like you’re concerned about our ‘good name.’ We’re doing this as CrimethInc., not some earnest political party seeking converts. Everything we do is propaganda—better that’s obvious, so people approach us with a healthy suspicion and consider the ideas on their merits alone.”

“I’m not convinced. I agree that if we position ourselves as ‘representatives’ of our ideas, so we’re responsible for selling them with our own irreproachable conduct, we’ll end up as incapable and inauthentic as fucking politicians. At the same time, I fear the kind of ‘branding’ that would result from naming the book after that sticker could undercut our ability to say anything at all. Corporations are already far ahead of us in that regard, and it just breeds cynicism, not healthy suspicion. If ‘resistance’ refers to a mass-produced book rather than unique acts of defiance, it’s that much more difficult to begin the conversation about what there is beyond books.”

“When I think about it, it’s ironic you’re worried about ruining a sticker with a book, rather than the other way around! I’d think a book could only improve on a sticker, not empty it of meaning.”

“You’re thinking that a book is better than a sticker because a lot of words can fill out a few words. But you can’t give meaning to words with more words—only actions can do that. This is the internet era—everyone in the US is totally debilitated by all that empty free speech. The higher the proportion of action to words, the better.”

“But you know we can’t act ‘as CrimethInc.’—especially not with all the scrutiny we’re under right now. CrimethInc. has always been a false front to put ideas out there that have to be filled out by the actions of real people. You can’t possibly be saying we shouldn’t publish this book, that we should just make stickers!”

“We’re getting off the subject. I think we should do the book—I’m just not convinced it’s a good idea to use that title, however perfect it is for the content.”

“You know you’re the only holdout, right? We’re going to have harder decisions than this ahead.”

“If there’s no other way, I’ll stand aside—but on one condition: we’d have to stop making those stickers.”

“I’m sure everybody would be OK with that. We’ll send out all the one’s we’ve already made and then no more. You write the announcement and we can put it up when the book’s done.”