Digital Collections

Contents: About FWWCP | Collection Overview | Archive History | Tech

About FWWCP

The Federation of Worker Writers and Community Publishers (FWWCP) was a network of community-based writing groups that stretched across the UK and eventually to other parts of Europe, Australia, South Africa, Canada and the United States. It was a significant working class writing/publication project of the 20th century, distributing over a million books between 1976-2007. It thrived during a period of significant social, economic and political change in the United Kingdom, especially through the 1970s and 1980s, and represented a significant counter-cultural movement. While this digital collection showcases a portion of the materials created, estimates believe there are thousands more that were created. If you or someone you know was part of the FWWCP, please contact us!

Collection Overview

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Archive History

While FWWCP members attempted to create an archive at various times throughout 1976-2007, there wasn’t enough funding or resources for a long-term structure. Between 2007-2008, the FWWCP was forced to fold during the recession. However, soon after, a new and invigorated group gathered to create TheFED: a network of writers and community publishers.

2013 A working team of FWWCP member Nick Pollard and close colleagues (then at Syracuse University) Steve Parks (now University of Virginia) and Jessica Pauszek (Boston College), committed to working with TheFED, a reorganized FWWCP, to establish an archive. In 2014, Nick Pollard reached out to London Metropolitan University’s Trade Union Congress (TUC) Special Collection Library, to inquire about their interest in the materials. With the help of academic librarian liaison Jeff Howarth, the TUC acquired a significant deposit of FWWCP materials from Nick Pollard. This was the first step in creating a print collection at the TUC.

2015-2018 The next step was to sort through these publications and develop a system for sorting and cataloguing. After additional discussions with FWWCP members at their annual FED Festival, through workshops and focus groups, it was collectively decided to begin sorting the publications by region and then create metadata for each piece in the collection. To do this work, Jess Pauszek developed and taught a study abroad class through Syracuse University in 2015, 2016 (with Steve Parks), and 2018 (with Vincent Portillo).

2021-present Beyond these pieces, Jess Pauszek was able to get an Academic Technology and Innovation Grant through Boston College in order to continue working on digitizing the collection and developing metadata.