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Pluto Press

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Pluto Press
StatusActive
Founded1969; 55 years ago (1969)
FounderRichard Kuper
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Headquarters locationLondon, N6
DistributionMarston Book Services (UK)[1]
Chicago Distribution Center (US)[2]
Key peopleVeruschka Selbach (CEO)
David Castle (Editorial Director)[3]
Publication typesBooks
Nonfiction topicsLeft-wing and far-left politics
Official websitewww.plutobooks.com

Pluto Press is a British independent book publisher based in London, founded in 1969.[4]

Pluto Press states that it publishes "radical, left‐wing non­‐fiction books",[5] and is anti-capitalist and internationalist.[6] It belongs to The International Alliance of Independent Publishers.[7]

It has published works by Karl Marx, Mark "Chopper" Read, Frantz Fanon, Noam Chomsky, bell hooks, Edward Said, Augusto Boal, Vandana Shiva, Susan George, Ilan Pappé, Nick Robins, Raya Dunayevskaya, Graham Turner, Alastair Crooke, Gabriel Kolko, Hamid Dabashi, Tommy McKearney, Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Syed Saleem Shahzad, David Cronin, John Holloway, Euclid Tsakalotos, David Miller and Jonathan Cook.[8]

History: 1969–1987

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Pluto Press was set up in London by Richard Kuper in 1969 to support and promote political debate and activism. Its Trotskyist agenda stemmed from its early association with the International Socialists, which broadened to a wider revolutionary left in 1972 when Nina and Michael Kidron[9][10][11] joined. Anne Benewick and Ric Sissons joined soon after, and the team eventually reached 16 in number. Pluto Press has been described as "one of the most influential socialist publishing houses of that time".[11] Publishing extensively in the areas of movement history, race politics, Ireland, feminism and sexual politics, early successes included Sheila Rowbotham's Hidden from History: 300 years of women's oppression and the fight against it.[12] and Patrick Kinnersley's Hazards of Work.

Series published during this period include: the Workers' Handbooks; the Marxism Series;[citation needed] Ideas in Action;[citation needed] Militarism, State and Society series; Pluto Plays; Arguments for Socialism; Pluto Crime;[13] Liberation Classics in the 1980s; and the Big Red Diaries.[14] The most successful was the State of the World Atlas series by Michael Kidron and Ronald Segal[15] – visual encapsulations of major social and political trends – which were created and produced by Pluto Press and published by Pan Books.

The target readership was reached by selling directly to trades unions, women's organisations and networks, student unions, and theatre audiences as well as through the network of radical bookshops that emerged in the 1970s.[16] Pluto Press became a distributor and co-publisher of titles generated by Urizen Books[17] and South End Press[18] in the US, and Ink Links[19] in the UK, as well as distributor for Counter-Information Services, History Workshop, Feminist Review and others. A trade sales organisation, Volume Sales, was set up in partnership with Allison & Busby, under the direction of Ric Sissons (who later ran Pluto Australia).[20] New departures in publishing included working with Max Stafford-Clark and the Royal Court Theatre to encourage theatre-goers to read playscripts by printing programmes that included the entire play.[21][22] In 1987, Pluto Press was bought by Roger van Zwanenberg and Norman Drake. Drake later sold his shares to van Zwanenberg.

University of Michigan Press controversy

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Main article: University of Michigan Press § Controversies

Prior to Palgrave Macmillan, Pluto Press was distributed by The University of Michigan Press in the United States. However, in June 2008, The University of Michigan Press terminated this relationship after new guidelines were established for its relationships with external publishing houses.[23][24][25] The decision came after a series of events tied to the distribution of a 2007 Pluto Press book, Overcoming Zionism (written by then Bard College professor Joel Kovel), which argues for a "one state" solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[26] After briefly resuming the redistribution, the University of Michigan finally ceased it in 2008, observing that Pluto Press does not undertake peer review of the finished manuscripts it publishes.[23][27] This rationale was described as "a facade" by Roger van Zwanenberg, chairman of Pluto Press, who says that the University of Michigan knew that Pluto's peer review process "is not identical to that of a university press."[23]

Pluto Journals

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Launched in 2009, Pluto Journals publishes several open-access journals. As of 2022, the following journals are active:[28]

  • Arab Studies Quarterly
  • Bethlehem University Journal
  • Decolonial Horizons / Horizontes Decoloniales
  • Groundings: The Journal of the Walter Rodney Foundation
  • Institute of Employment Rights Journal
  • International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies
  • International Journal of Cuban Studies
  • International Journal of Disability and Social Justice
  • Islamophobia Studies Journal
  • Journal for the Study of Indentureship and its Legacies
  • Journal of Fair Trade
  • Journal of Global Faultlines
  • Journal of Intersectionality
  • Policy Perspectives
  • Prometheus. Critical Studies in Innovation
  • ReOrient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies
  • Socialist Lawyer
  • State Crime Journal
  • Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation
  • World Review of Political Economy
  • Zanj: The Journal of Critical Global South Studies

References

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  1. ^ Marston Client List
  2. ^ "Publishers served by the Chicago Distribution Center". Chicago Distribution Center, University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
  3. ^ "Contact Us", Pluto Press.
  4. ^ "Pluto Press: About Us". Pluto Press. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
  5. ^ "Pluto Press - Independent, Radical Publishing". Pluto Press. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  6. ^ "About Us - Pluto Press - Independent, Radical Publishing". Pluto Press. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  7. ^ "Pluto Press". Retrieved 6 August 2023.
  8. ^ "Palgrave Macmillan: Pluto Press". Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
  9. ^ "Michael Kidron and Richard Kuper". Revolutionary History, Vol. 8, No. 3, 2003, pp. 281–85. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  10. ^ "Mike Kidron 1931–2003", Gauche, 1 April 2003. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  11. ^ a b "Obituary: Michael Kidron". The Guardian. 27 March 2003. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  12. ^ Rowbotham, Sheila, From Hidden from History, 1973. Transcribed by Andy Blunden, www.marxists.org. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  13. ^ Images of the Pluto Crime Series covers. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  14. ^ Images of the Big Red Diary. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  15. ^ Herbstein, Denis, "Ronald Segal Obituary". The Guardian, 26 February 2008. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  16. ^ Andy Newman, "Left Bookshops"[usurped]. Socialist Unity, 18 October 2011. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  17. ^ "The Short Unhappy Life of Urizen Books". Artscritic blogspot: note on Urizen Books, 28 April 2011. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  18. ^ "www.znetwork.org: note on South End Press". Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  19. ^ "List of Ink Link publications". Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  20. ^ Kuper, Richard. "A History of Pluto Press | 50 years of Radical Publishing". Pluto Press.
  21. ^ Caryl Churchill Biography lists Pluto Press titles. Retrieved 8 February 2013
  22. ^ Snoo Wilson Biography lists Pluto Press titles. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  23. ^ a b c Jaschik, Scott (18 June 2008). "Michigan Severs Ties to Controversial Publisher". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  24. ^ Kroll, Andy (23 January 2008). "Under fire, 'U' Press changes guidelines". The Michigan Daily. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  25. ^ "The University of Michigan Press: Distributed Clients". University of Michigan Press. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  26. ^ Jaschik, Scott (11 September 2007). "A Book on Hold". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  27. ^ Jennifer Howard, "U. of Michigan Press Will Stop Distributing Titles for 'Radical' Publisher", The Chronicle of Higher Education, 18 June 2008.
  28. ^ "Pluto Journals". ScienceOpen. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
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