Zine / pamphlet. Published by Microcosm!
In 1952 Marty Glaberman was a Detroit autoworker who had participated in wildcat strikes and UAW union policing of the workforce. After witnessing a series of workers who were promoted to steward and become ineffective negotiators, Glaberman had a realization. He had been an autoworker since before unionization in 1937 but consistently watched promoted workers turn against their own as they were promoted. Why? The question that has been asked in every coal mine, worker shop, ship in port, steel mill, and auto plant was forever: was it selfish betrayal or bureaucracy that killed any prospects of solidarity in even the most active union worker?
Designed + Produced in Portland, Oregon
* Woman Owned Business
Portland's most colorful, authentic, and empowering publishing house and distributor, Microcosm Publishing equips readers to make positive changes in their lives and in the world around them. Microcosm emphasizes skill-building, showing hidden histories, and fostering creativity through challenging conventional publishing wisdom with books and zines about DIY skills, food, bicycling, gender, self-care, and social justice.Microcosm has lived in milk crates, in closets, in a mud room, in a windowless basement, in a church, and under a desk at a major credit card company. We've brought our brightly colored books to infoshops, zine fests, media summits, bicycle conferences, parks, street corners, house shows, dirty bars, allnight coffeeshops, art museums, and every corner of the mainstream where we can clear away a little space to set up shop. We set out to save ourselves from not caring, but out there in the margins we've found communities worth always doing it better for. Now we have contracts instead of handshakes, a warehouse instead of a fanny pack full of zines. We have a staff, we have relationships in the industry that send our books to places we wouldn't have dreamed we could walk into ourselves. We're not as drunk or dirty as we used to be. But still, at heart, we've got this milk crate strapped to the back of a bike and we're riding wildly across town to hand you the book that might just be the one that saves your life!
