“Solidarity, Not Charity”: DOPE Magazine’s Active Approach To Tackling Poverty
You’d be forgiven for not noticing that DOPE Magazine is an anarchist paper straight away. In fact, its editors don’t really mind whether or not people read its contents, so long as they buy it. That’s because DOPE is much more than a newspaper, “it’s a solidarity initiative based around mutual aid,” explains Craig Clark, a founder of the quarterly magazine. Though of course, he adds, “we do want people to read it!”
It’s certainly worth the read. There are radical and insightful articles by contributors including the late Benjamin Zephaniah and musicians Sleaford Mods; evocative artwork by illustrators and street artists; international dispatches on underreported issues, including frontline reports on prison conditions from incarcerated writers; and even poetry – all with an anarchist bent written for a mainstream audience. “We have three regular spreads, work, prison and liberation, which are three constant themes of anarchism since the 1800s, and things that are still problems for us today,” Clark says.
“More than just the anarchist content is the anarchist way we distribute DOPE,” Clark says, referring to the fact that, unlike some other street papers, DOPE is given for free to anyone who wants to sell it, “no questions asked”, and vendors keep all proceeds (it costs £3). DOPE’s active approach to tackling homelessness and poverty is built on the principle of solidarity, not charity, in contrast to traditional charitable structures where ‘saviour’ helps ‘victim’.
DOPE started out printing 1,000 copies per issue (4,000 copies per year overall) in 2018. In 2023, it printed more than 200,000 copies in total for distribution of the magazine in towns and cities across the UK. “That was never in our wildest dreams,” says Clark. It’s not cheap to run an operation of this size, and DOPE is mainly funded by individual supporters. Sometimes artists will donate work that can be sold as posters, with all proceeds going towards the magazine. In 2023, prints of work by the graffiti artist 10 Foot sold out in minutes and helped to raise thousands of pounds.
Most vendors are unhoused, but not everyone. In a recent film about the magazine made by documentarian Si Mitchell, one vendor explains that though he has housing, he struggles with poverty. Selling the magazine “really helps me just put some money on the table,” he says. “Without the magazine we wouldn’t be able to survive,” says another.
Clark shares the story of Terry, a vendor in Shrewsbury, who gave out some of his copies of DOPE to a few other unhoused people in the local area. The police were so impressed with the subsequent level of crime reduction in shoplifting and anti-social behaviour that they began to refer people to Terry as an ‘unofficial harm prevention service’.
DOPE can’t solve all the reasons why people become homeless or live in poverty, but it does show that tackling the root causes is more effective than criminalising the consequences. “Most crime is committed because people are struggling to survive,” Clark says. “If we find more ways to support people to make ends meet, they won’t need to commit crime. DOPE shows that when we provide income, support and solidarity to those who need it, we can begin to see a world where we don’t need police in the first place. Mutual aid means that we all support each other, and DOPE is a living example of this.”
Molly Lipson is a freelance writer and social justice organiser. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone and Vice
