The Blast (newspaper)

The Blast (newspaper)

The Blast was an anarchist newspaper published by Alexander Berkman from 1916 through 1917. When Berkman left his position as editor of Mother Earth, he moved to San Francisco and began work on The Blast. Named for the signature effect caused by the explosion of a revolutionist's dynamite bomb, the journal was originally conceived by Berkman as a "revolutionary labor paper" rather than a strictly anarchist newspaper. The Blast focused on the California labor situation and provided news about national labor events and leaders of radical political movements.

Berkman published 29 issues of The Blast. In it he covered subjects such as Emma Goldman and Margaret Sanger's arrests for birth-control advocacy, the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, and the trial of labor agitators Tom Mooney and Warren Billings for the Preparedness Day bombing. The magazine was shut down in June 1917 when Berkman was arrested for encouraging resistance to the draft. In 2005, all 29 issues of The Blast were re-published in book form by AK Press.