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FWWCP History

The Federation of Worker Writers and Community Publishers (FWWCP) was a network of community-based writing groups that stretched across the UK and to a much lesser extend, Europe, Australia, Canada and the US. Voluntary, community-run groups met to allow working class people to share and discuss their creative writing and facilitate community self-publication. 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. Many of the groups emerged out of local politics and campaigning, some such as Hackney's Centerprise were a model of community cohesion, providing a bookshop, publisher, crèche, cafe, and legal advice. Others still exist such as Brighton's QueenSpark Books, the UK's longest running community publisher that started out of a grassroots campaign to establish a nursery school instead of a casino. Some of the FWWCP legacy still exists in the form of The FED, a much smaller network that follows many of the FWWCP principles but uses an online presence to keep members in touch. The FED includes writing workshops and groups across the country, mostly centered in London, and like its predecessor, continues to celebrate diversity.