Humour, Creativity, and Transparency: Sustaining Feminist Print Culture in Red Rag (1972–1980)

In this paper, I propose to examine how Red Rag, a collectively produced socialist feminist magazine, sustained itself over an eight-year period marked by intense internal and external conflict. I hope to show how the magazine navigated ideological divisions, interpersonal tensions, and organisational instability within the Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) and the broader Left, while also contending with the considerable influence and power of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). Despite these pressures, the women involved demonstrated notable determination in maintaining an autonomous feminist space during a period when Party structures and leftist organisational cultures exerted significant force over political communication. The paper will situate Red Rag within the wider landscape of 1970s feminist and leftist print culture, using the magazine as a lens through which to understand the political communication practices of the time—including extensive letter writing, collective production processes, and the circulation of newsletters that sustained movement dialogue. I will argue that Red Rag’s long-form format and collaborative editorial practices enabled contributors to work through ideological disagreements in ways that resisted the hierarchical and centralised communication norms often associated with Left organisations, including the CPGB. Humour, creative design, and self-reflexive editorial commentary operated as political tools that diffused conflict, fostered openness, and maintained transparency in moments of disagreement or uncertainty. In addition to these structural and stylistic features, I aim to show that relationships and friendships among contributors were central to the magazine’s endurance. These relational bonds provided emotional continuity and mutual support, enabling the collective to hold space for disagreement, maintain trust, and work collaboratively through the challenges posed by both internal differences and external political pressures. The paper will also reflect on how Red Rag’s slow, relational, and long-form model of communication contrasts sharply with contemporary digital political cultures, which often amplify polarisation and reduce opportunities for sustained dialogue. By examining how determination, friendship, creativity, humour, and transparent collective practice supported the magazine’s survival, I hope to demonstrate the importance of durable, relational media infrastructures for sustaining difficult but necessary political conversations.