Come!Unity Press - Survival by Sharing
ComeUnity Press began as an early-70s New York City working/living environment centered round a 24-hour open access print shop run by a gay anarchist collective (with more than a hint of hippyness) - its permanent members at the time were lin & mercure
there was a certain proud defiance in having a place like this, occupying the 6th floor of a run-down commercial building in Lower Manhattan, managing to survive in the very heart of the beast
most of the NYC movement groups and many local community organisations used ComeUnity at one time or another, regardless of any potential conflict of ideological beliefs, mainly because it offered free printing facilities - or rather it taught people how to print their own stuff and in return requested (hustled for) a contribution towards the running expenses - there was also a certain amount of editorial control exercised over what was printed, which sometimes led to long and complex discussions
everything printed there had to have a message on its cover along the lines of "this publication is free, but donations are invited to cover the cost" - all the official stationary (envelopes, notepaper, bills etc) was patterned with green marijuana leaves (the templates were created using real leaves taken from the plants growing up on the roof) - "rainbow" paper was often used, created by manually smearing different coloured inks directly onto the rollers of the off-set litho machines - constant rock music blared out from sound systems at either end of the building - and although food might sometimes have been in short supply, it was rare for there to be a lack of grass
the Press managed to continue operating like this until the late-70s (tho working times were nominally restricted to between 2pm and 2am after the first couple of years) - but eventually the common sense faction won out and commercial work was increasingly taken on to help pay bills
i don't know how long it survived, but thirty years later Come Unity Press is still listed in some US business directories under commercial printing services, with the same address, and even the same telephone number -
Come-Unity Press
13 East 17th Street Front
New York, NY 10003-1945
Phone - 001 (212) 675-3043
Fax - 001 (928) 758-1577
[click on pics to see full size images]
info on Come!Unity (circa 1975)
  
  
images from "anti-mass - methods of organization for collectives"
first published by the anti-mass (New Haven)
reprinted at Come!Unity by Noa Noa in 1975
 
a partial list of Come Unity Press publications
"An Oration on Thomas Paine" - Robert G Ingersol
New York, NY: Come! Unity Press, 1976. 32pp.
"Anarchos #4" - last issue
(Non-authoritarian approaches to revolutionary theory and practice.)
64 pages 5 oz 65c (1974/75?)
"Anarchism: The Feminist Connection" - Peggy Kornegger
Come! Unity Press, n.d. 16 p.
"Anarchy and Organization: A Letter to the Left"
(Reply to Huey Newton - New Left Notes, the official organ of SDS.) - Jan 15, 1969
republished as a brochure by Buffalo, N.Y.: Friends of Malatesta (c. 1969)
republished as a brochure by New York: Come!Unity Press
Greek translation "Anarchia kai organosi," (Nikos B Alexiou) in "Ierarhia Kai Kyriarhia" (1977)
"anti-mass - methods of organization for collectives"
originally published by the anti-mass (New Haven)
reprinted at Come!Unity Press by Noa Noa 1975. 56 p. : ill. ; 14 cm
"Bakunin on Violence: Letter to Sergei Nechayev" - Michael Bakunin
Come!Unity Press, n.d. 48 p.
"El Humanismo de Marz en la Actualidad por Raya Dunayevakaya"
(written in Spanish)
A News & Letters publication - 1oz 10c
"From the Brooklyn House of Detention - The Statue of Liberty Seen Through Penitentiary Bars"
Summer '74 - 2oz 50c
"Industrial Workers Of The World"
(Some IWW cartoons.)
Come !Unity Press, [s.d.] 16 p. : ill. ; 28 cm
"Martin Sostre - Framed"
Flyer (21.6 x 27.9 cm)
"Murray Bookchin Bibliography" - compiled by Janet Biehl
(Originally published on Murray Bookchin's seventieth birthday.)
republished as a brochure by New York: Come!Unity Press (n.d.)
[confirmation required]
"Mutual Aid Employment Agency"
Flyer, single sheet of paper (21.6 x 27.9 cm)
"No One Is Free Unless Everyone Is Free"
Folded leaflet (4 sided) (17.8 x 21.6 cm)
"official design bureau" - free-form poem
Single sheet of paper (21.6 x 35.5 cm)
"Poems & Translations" - Lauritsen, John - 1st edition
(English translations of poems by Stefan George, Bertolt Brecht and Friedrich Holderlin.)
(written in English and German)
New York, NY: Come! Unity Press, 1975-09. 32pp.
"Poetry - Written in English and German"
English translations of poems by Stefan George, Bertolt Brecht and Friedrich Holderlin
Come! Unity Press, 1975-09. 32pp.
"Questionnaire on male sexuality" - Shere Hite / NOW (NYC)
41.2 x 27.9 cm
Come! Unity Press, 1974
"Sexual Honesty By Women for Women" - Press Release
(by Shere Hite, published by Warner Paperback Library, April 1974)
21.5 x 13.8 cm
Come! Unity Press, 1974
"Sodom & Gomorrah Day" - poster for the Jelly Bread Co-op, Brooklyn
1 large sheet (43 x 28 cm)
"The Earth Belongs to the People" - R Slater, Doug Kitt, Dave Widelock and Paul Kangas
illustrated by Nick Thorkelson.
Survival By Sharing - Come!Unity Press, [1981?]. 12 p. : ill. ; 28x21 cm
"The Religious Roots of the Taboo on Homosexuality" - John Lauritsen - 1st edition
Come! Unity Press, 1974-05. 26pp. 2 oz 75c
"The Religious Roots of the Taboo on Homosexuality" - John Lauritsen -- 2nd edition
(The Judeo-Christian invention and enforcement of a new self-repression.)
New York, NY: Come! Unity Press, 1974-09-08. 26pp. 2 oz 75c
"The Slavery Of Our Times" - Leo Tolstoy
(An expression of his anarcho-pacifict analysis of wage-slavery.)
Come Unity 3 oz 75c (1974/75?)
"To all News Media from the Martin Sostre Defense Committee"
Single sheet of paper (21.6 x 27.9 cm)
"Top Ranking: A Collection Of Articles On Racism And Classism In The Lesbian Community"
compiled by Joan Gibbs and Sara Bennett
Come!Unity Press 1980
"Unemployment - The Facts the Experts Can't Explain"
The New School Union for Radical Political Economics Unemploymeny Project
32 pages 1.5oz 50c (1974/75?)
"Women in the Spanish Revolution" - Liz Willis
Come Unity Press, 1975
"Ya-Trang and the Magic Pearl: A Vietnamese Folk-Tale"
Translated from the French by Paul Werner, calligraphy and illustrations by Ellen Quackenbos
(This children's book tells the story of the hunter who acquired the pearl of knowledge, and lost it, and never forgave himself. It was printed on seven sheets with 42 plates, on an AB Dick office printer. It was originally meant to be sold to benefit the North Vietnamese Red Cross; remaining copies (60 at last count) are being sold to benefit Doctors Without Borders. As part of the agreement with Come! Unity Press, there is no fixed price. Suggested price is $5.00 per copy.)
STILL AVAILABLE! - from the Orange Press
ComeUnity prints, posters & handbills at the US Library of Congress
(search at the Library of Congress)
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee, '73 - American Indian Movement (AIM) (1973)
Color in NYC - Beverly Belfer (1973)
Come! Unity Press, 13 East 17 Seventeenth St. (unknown date)
Demonstrate against government attacks on abortion rights! (1977)
La resistencia vencera! (1976)
Proteste contra el corte de fondos en Medicaid para los abortos (before 1977)
(Protest against the cuts in Medicaid funds for abortion)
handbill - text on verso, posted on top of another handbill so verso not legible
Uruguayo - Comit de Defensa por los Prisioneros Politicos Uruguayos (before 1977)
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