Where can I find more information about the Australian labour movement? What was political ephemera like in the 1970s? Which former world leader excels at cleaning toilets…and what’s the best dish to make with flank of U.S. President? Read on to find out more…
State Library Victoria members can access hundreds of databases from home (if your home is in Victoria). That’s millions of articles, magazines, archives, ebooks, videos, songs, audiobooks and more, available through the catalogue anytime. We’re taking a closer look at new and/or interesting databases as well as hidden gems from our collections. Read on for top picks and tips from Librarians.
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Today we’re looking at the Gale database Power to the People: Counterculture, social movements, and the alternative press.
What makes this database so great?
Gale’s Power to the People database highlights people-powered politics and social movements from the 19th and 20th centuries. The focus is on the Unites States and United Kingdom, however key events from all around the world are highlighted as well.
It’s not just about politics either – Power to the People gets weird with it and brings you full runs of some of the most loved (and hated) counter-culture publications and magazines.
The database contains eight distinct collections, making browsing easier. From the homepage, click the Collections link to explore them.
- Bizarre – a complete run of ‘the World’s No. 1 Alternative Magazine’ from 1997-2015.
- Fortean Times, including The News: A miscellany of Fortean curiosities – ‘a monthly magazine of news, reviews, and research on strange phenomena and experiences, curiosities, prodigies, and portents’ – 1973-2020.
- Pacific Coast Counterculture Collection – primary source material documenting grassroots political action in the late 20th century.
- Pamphlets on Left-Wing Politics and Radical Political Movements (Selections from the Ron Heisler Collection) – including content from all around the world, dating as far back as 1766.
- Posters from the Pacific Coast Counterculture Collection – documenting many political and cultural movements.
- The Liberal Students of 1960s University of Michigan Collection – a small snapshot of student activism at the University of Michigan in 1968-1969.
- University of Bradford’s Special Collections on Peace, Politics, and Social Change – pamphlet and ephemera collections relevant to non-violent peace movements.
- Viz – 301 editions of the British adult comic magazine, 1979-2020.
Searching and browsing
Click on each tile to be taken to the collection landing page. You can then search within the specific collection, or browse all documents contained.
Alternatively, you can search the entire database from the homepage.
Some highlights
Alternative publications
In trying times, countercultures thrive. A little dose of weirdness is sometimes the best defence in the face of a bleak political landcape. In Power to the People you can browse or search long runs of several alternative British magazines, including Bizarre, Vis, and the Fortean Times.
The coverage for Bizarre is total, spanning 1997-2015. Here you can find a fascinating (and maybe nostalgic) snapshot of turn-of-the-Millenium alternative lifestyles and countercultures. The first edition’s cover features a pin-up style photograph of actress Teri Hatcher – extremely famous at the time for her starring role in Lois & Clark: the new adventures of Superman, which finished on TV that year. Inside are feature articles about extreme sports, new “smart” drugs, sex parties, gang rivalry, and spontaneous human combustion; as well as reviews for cult films such as Mars Attacks!, musical acts like Daft Punk, sword-swallowing club events, and a travel section called ’24 weird hours in Miami’. The note from the editor in this first edition reads: ‘Read, enjoy, be amazed. The world’s a very strange place, getting stranger by the minute. We’re here to tell you all about it’1
The Fortean Times began in 1973 (as The News: A miscellany of Fortean curiosities) and is still going today. Power to the People has coverage spanning right up to 2020. This magazine focuses on strange and unexplainable phenomena, with a good dose of dark humour included. The Spring 1986 edition (below) is a special issue focusing on lake monsters of Continental Europe – if you’re fascinated with the Loch Ness Monster this might be the edition for you!
And who says that comics are just for children? Viz is one of the top British adult comic magazines, with editions available on this database from 1979-2020. Immature, crude, foul-mouthed – this magazine is not for the easily offended. The magazine declares no political bias, you’re likely to find all sides of politics parodied with their usual brand of toilet humour, such as the below satirical advertisement.
Many of the jokes are a little too risqué to show here, but who can go past a whole set of llama puns!
Posters and pamphlets
Power to the People contains a wealth of political material, mostly from the UK and USA, but also from Australia and elsewhere in the world.
The Pacific Coast Counterculture collection includes a poster archive which is easily searchable by keyword, and is likely to be of interest to political afficionados and graphic designers alike.
Here you’ll find posters dedicated to the peace movement, including anti-war, anti-conscription, and pro-disarmament content. The posters have been designed for maximum visual impact, whether stark and austere or fun and inviting.
Right: Chwast S (1982) ‘March for Peace & Justice’ poster featuring an illustration of several people walking together as a white dove, Portfolio 88, ©Pacific Coast Counterculture Collection
You’ll also find posters advancing women’s rights. Below is an infographic providing a timeline of the women’s rights movement in America, including the historic (and recently overturned) Roe v. Wade decision; as well as a poster for Kvinde Lejr (Women’s Camp) – a popular feminist camp started by the Red Stockings movement in 1971, which is still running to this day, held on the Danish island of Femø.
Environmental and anti-nuclear sentiment is also on display. The below posters from Denmark (left) and Germany (right) use very different graphics to highlight similar themes.
Right: ‘Nee.’ (No.) black and white poster (1979), Portfolio 88, ©Pacific Coast Counterculture Collection
A similar anti-nuclear theme can be found within the University of Bradford’s Special Collections on Peace, Politics, and Social Change. The below images are front covers of ephemeral pamphlets that might have been handed out on campus, or in busy streets.
Right: Anti-Nuclear Campaign (1980s?) Anti Nuclear Campaign: Stop Nuclear Power Now, ©The University of Bradford 2022
Australian politics
The majority of content in Power to the People is from the UK and US, but there is still a wealth of Australian material to view. You can find reports from peace conferences held in Australia, flyers discussing the ecological implications of the Bougainville war, and publications by the Australian Socialist Labor Party. A document printed by the Campaign against Foreign Military Bases in Australia discusses the creation of the controversial Omega base in Gippsland, Victoria, which for a time was Australia’s tallest man-made structure. The dossier bemoans the military-industrial complex, and asserts that America has made Australia ‘a pawn in this cold war of fear’.
The Ron Heisler Collection includes publications written about the Australian left-wing politics, including Australian Labour Leader: The story of W. A. Holman and the labour movement by H. V. Evatt – William Holman being a former NSW Premier whose support of a “yes” vote in the 1916 conscription plebiscite resulted in his (and others’) removal from the Australian Labor Party. If you’re interested in the early history of Australian politics, you can read the 1940 publication A Short History of the Australian Labor Movement by Brian Fitzpatrick.
Fun and games
Sometimes if you don’t laugh, you cry. Many countercultural movements know that humour and satire are the best ways to get attention! Nowhere is this more evident than in the pamphlet ‘To Serve the Rich’ by ETR publishers.
While the front page suggests this could be a selection of haute-cuisine recipes, further inspection yields recipes such as Presidential Sweet:
…a delicate and exotic dessert that is rarely served because the original recipe calls for the use of the flanks of a U.S. President. Even though the prevailing political situation makes it possible that this rare cut may soon be available, there still would not be enough available to meet the demand. Instead, we have substituted cuts from high ranking oil and utility corporation Presidents with almost equal success.2“
And after dinner comes dancing and a show! The Pacific Coast Counterculture Collection includes collections of dance and concert ‘cards’ – the kind of small advertising flyers you might have been handed to convince you to come along to a special club night back in the 1980s and 1990s, perhaps with a promise of discounted entry or a free drink. The imagery of these cards set the tone for the kind of night you could expect: what music would be played, what kinds of people you might see there, and what you should wear to make sure you fitted in – or stood out from the crowd! Even decades later, the cards pictured below give you a hint of what the club scene was like. Maybe you can still hear the beat!
Bottom right: ‘Postcard flyer for “Midnight Mass” film event hosted by Peaches Christ, with guests John Waters, Mink Stole and Elvira’ (n.d.) Dance Cards, 1990, Box 31, p.27, ©Pacific Coast Counterculture Collection
We hope you enjoy exploring Power to the People: Counterculture, social movements, and the alternative press.
We always welcome your recommendations for database trials – let us know what you’d like to see. Check out our latest databases on trial, and see a full list of all new and trial databases, by visiting our A-Z Databases page.
Have a research query or questions on how to use our online collections? Ask a Librarian.
More to explore
- If you enjoyed this blog, read our research guide on Protests, activism & dissent in Victoria
- For an alternative perspective to the themes mentioned in this blog, read our Online Collection Spotlight: Political Extremism and Radicalism
- Read our guest blog from our Wikipedians-in-Residence on their work correcting gender bias: Radical Acts
- Jerome F (1997) ‘Editor’s note: Read, Enjoy, Be Amazed’, Bizarre, vol 1, p 22
- ‘To Serve the Rich’, Humor, 1945-2017, Box 29, p.108, © Pacific Coast Counterculture Collection
