Trojka Publishing House was started in 1994. It originated as an idea to share interesting books found in antique bookshops and old attics. It turned out later that more people were interested in such an idea and the brochures were sold and distributed more widely.
Initially, Trojka was supposed to release cheap publications. With time, we started publishing more expensive and in depth booklets, presenting ideas of thinkers such as anarchist classics Bakunin, Kropotkin or the Polish anti-state socialist Abramowski. Later, we also released publications where authors were writing about those thinkers’ ideas and were taking part in self-organized social movements.
Texts published by Trojka always widely describe the reality we are living in. They refer to different areas: history, politics, philosophy, culture, economy, ecology, feminism. They are supposed to connect all of those fields and break the limits within them. The starting point for us is the critical treatment of all relationships of domination, which are present in different levels of social life. Only by trespassing the norm defined by the authority we can talk about the real critiques. If the critique that uses words and publications is supposed to make any sense at all, it has to take place in practice too. We are referring to that practice by publishing books.
We wanted to emphasize the continuity of the topics we are undertaking, that is why we released different publishing series.
The first one of the series is called “Anarchism Ideas Practice”. It presents existing alternatives to the imposed social order. It is also believed to be a starting point in the discussion about tactics and practice of liberation movements.
Another series is called “Theories of Resistance” and the books published within it aim to criticize the dominant ways of thinking about social reality. The ideas presented within them refer to the practice of specific social movements and are strictly connected with them.
The historical series contains the stories and the legacy of anti-systemic movements and not only the old ones. It poses questions and encourages us to come to conclusions about currently active social movements.
Series “Library of Anarchist Classics” is a part of the “Anarchist Archives” project done together with Poznan’s Anarchist Library. The main aim of it is promoting the legacy of anarchist thought in its classical form.
“Analyses” is a presentation of research on the actions of the powerful elite and the actions of the majority of the society, those that doesn’t have the power. In this case, the analysis is connected with defining the most important practices performed by both sides.
Publication of the magazine “The Anarchist Review” /”Przeglad Anarchistyczny”/ sparked off debate about key social conflicts, social movements and the relations between both of them. Their dynamics encouraged us to connect the local perspective with the global one and that is why the magazine contains analysis written in Poland and translations of texts written by activists from other countries.
We are also co-publishers of “Another World” /”Inny Swiat”/ magazine, which presents columns and news reports about the current activities and initiatives of the anarchist, anti-militarist, radical left and union movement.
Apart from the publishing series Trojka regularly publishes books presenting the history of anarchist movement in Poland and throughout the world, ideological texts by thinkers and activists such as Max Nettlau, Johan Most, Henry David Thoreau, Jozef Zielinski and the researchers of anarchist movements, e.g. Wincenty Kolodziej, Ludwik Kulczycki and Wojciech Gielzynski.
From the very beginning the activity of Trojka has been unrestricted and so we also publish poetry, comic books, handbooks and books of many different types.
Trojka is a collective, its members are equal to each other. In spite of the fact that we exist in the “market”, we do not use its rules. There is no boss. People working for the publishing house are not employed on capitalist rules, which are based on hierarchy and exploitation of other people. The collective is strongly connected with Polish anarchist movement. Being a part of a social movement it also tries to increase its autonomy from the state and capital. Because of those reasons its aim is not fitting into the reality of the market, but the development of social self-organization.
Publishing activity is an integral part of activities in other fields. We are organizing ourselves locally and nationally. We are part of Rozbrat squat, a place which shows that the independent social centre is not a utopia. We run the Anarchist Library, which is an archive of radical publications from all over the world. We develop the All-Polish Trade Union Workers’ Initiative, which is an answer to an increasing compulsion of work. We create culture, which is free from sponsors, fashion and donations, we create independent media, debate clubs, alternative economy and many other initiatives.
We distribute magazines and books published by us and other publishing houses. Because of the independent network of distribution by post, Internet, selling books during different events, concerts, meetings, lectures and also selling them in the book stores we are reaching the readers.
From the so-called profits that we get we are supporting our new ideas. Of course, we are open to cooperate with anyone, especially when it comes to distribution and promotion of independent publishing movement in Poland.
We are looking for distributors, translators, graphic artists, authors and those who would like to actively take part in the independent forms of communication. Trojka is not only a publishing house, it is mainly a network of mutual exchange of thought, critics, mail-art and anything you would like to share.
Trojka Publishing House Collective
http://www.rozbrat.org/our-activity/161-trojka-publishing-house