I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we are living in an age of fascism. It isn’t just on our shores; it stalks our streets, and it poisons our communities. It is Count Orlok (Nosferatu)’s hand stretching out over our cities and towns. Some recent examples include the crackdown on protests in NSW, which has led to continuously escalating police violence at peaceful protests, and the QLD Liberal government set to ban the pro-Palestinian phrases “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada”.

CREDIT: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Free speech and the rights of protestors have been
seriously eroded in Australia over the past decade.

It is here, and once it sinks its teeth in, it is hard to rip out. But hope is not yet lost, dear comrades! There are many ways to resist fascism, and today I would like to talk about one of them: Zines. But what is a zine? Amy King, lecturer of modern European history at the University of Bristol puts it best:

“Zines are multimodal, self-published print publications that combine words and images. Originating in the early twentieth century, they are handmade and cheap to make, combining collage, drawing and writing, and are typically reproduced using photocopiers. They have traditionally been used within underground subcultures, including punk and radical feminism.”

I am a zine-maker. I have a zine publication called Lapsus Calami, which is an outlet for me to discuss basically any topic I’m interested in, share my passions with others, teach people about anarchism, and inform others on various social and political issues.

King says that zine-making is an important part of a creative antifascist pedagogy,¹ and I agree with that statement. The whole point of zines is that they are an outlet for people to express themselves and speak freely on things that are usually repressed or underrepresented in popular media.

Zines are also typically community-focused. They’re not something that is mass produced (a lot are usually produced with 100 or less copies), and most tend not to stray far outside the city/town or community they’re made in. With the internet, zines can be shared outside their immediate physical area with others within the wider community all over the world. Archives like the Anarchist Zine Library mean zines from all over and from a diverse range of communities and leftist groups can be shared, printed and redistributed by others.

CREDIT: THE INDEPENDENT
Zines often champion voices that are underrepresented
or marginalised in mainstream culture.

Zines have also become a practical and vital part of battling censorship. As said above, zines are an outlet for folks to speak freely and express themselves in any way they please. In an age where nothing in mainstream media is to be trusted, zines are a legitimate way for communities and leftist groups to share information without fear of persecution.

CREDIT: WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY
Zines are frequently utilised by anarchist and leftist
groups, and other underground communities.

I also believe that zines (along with any form of human-made art) are a direct protest and resistance against generative AI, a tool that reeks of technofascism and whose ethical concerns are nearly endless. I have a couple of zines on this that go into more detail, but in summary:

There are environmental concerns, as AI data centres rely on a high intake of water and electricity. AI destroys (often working class and historically POC) communities by taking and poisoning their water supplies, polluting their air, and forcing those living nearby data centres to pay for the increased power usage via their utility bills.² The operation of AI software often utilises slave labour.³ AI is used by billionaire elites for fascist purposes — Greg Brockman, the president of OpenAI, donated $25 million to Donald Trump’s Super PAC in 2025, and OpenAI has been collaborating with ICE.⁴ And of course, AI steals work from artists and writers in order to train itself,⁵ which should be reason enough to stand against its use.

Another thing I love about zines is that there is no pressure for perfection. They’re incredibly low-cost, and you really only need three things to start off with: a piece of paper, a pen/pencil, and an idea. Even if you cannot afford paper and pens, fear not, comrades: Contact me, and I’ll be more than happy to purchase stationery for you. Zines are a delightful medium of art, and something that every leftist should engage in, whether that’s supporting existing publications or producing their own. And in this new age of fascism, we need art like zines more than ever. So comrades: Make zines, resist fascism.

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Sources:

1. Amy King. Towards a Creative Antifascist Pedagogy:
   Zine-making in the Classroom. Royal Historical Society.
2. Drew Gooden. Greed is Destroying the World. YouTube.
3. 60 Minutes. Training AI takes heavy toll on Kenyans
   working $2 an Hour. YouTube
4. Mark Coeckelbergh. Technofascism: AI, Big Tech, and
   the new authoritarianism. AI & Society
5. Sam Whiting. AI is generating a ‘Frankenstein-like’
   product on stolen creative work. RMIT University.

This article was originally published in Keep Left #1.