Art Metropole

#14805

Manifesto, Profit-For-Survival

Writer

Be Oakley

Date

2021

Publisher

GenderFail

Format

Zines

Length

32 pp

Genre

Politics, Risograph, Theory

Manifesto, Profit-for-Survival was first written for Towards a Self Sustaining Publishing Model, a panel created by Be Oakley with Marc Fischer, Vivian Sming, Yuri Ogita, and Devin Troy Strother apart of the 2021 Printed Matter Virtual Art Book Fair. This 2nd edition features Be Oakley’s contribution to Bhatt article featuring questions poised by a round table conversation centered around the thesis What does it take to make indie publishing work?.

This Manifesto looks at the word profit through an anti-capital lens from the perspective of small and self publishing practices. From the manifesto Oakley states:

When we say “profit” (in the non-for-profit to for-profit spectrum) what do we mean? As a person trying to live off the “profit” they generate from their work, profit is essential to my livelihood and my ability to continue producing work that I am passionate about. So to say that I am for-profit does not yet speak to the complexities of a non-capitalist small publishing project. The word “profit” without any other context is a simplification, it can’t speak to the complexities of what making profit means for my life, my work and my future. GenderFail is not non-for-profit but profit-for-survival, or profit-to-continue-our-work-without-other-means-of-capital — and most importantly to make money for the people I publish, to create profit-for-labor. Defining the means of Non-Exploitative-Profit, through describing how our work is created, who is being paid and the ethics behind its creation, is essential when trying to define the terms of any engagement with “profit.”