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This movement borrowed the name from previous ''underground presses'' such as the Dutch Underground Press during the Nazi occupations of the 1940s . The French Resistance also published an underground press and prisoners of war ( POW s) published an underground newspaper called ''Pow wow''. Those predecessors were truly "underground," meaning they were illegal, thus published and distributed covertly. While the countercultural "underground" papers frequently battled with governmental authorities, for the most part they were distributed openly through a network of street vendors, newsstands and "head shops," and thus reached a wide audience. The underground press in the 60s and 70s existed in most countries with high GDP per capita and Freedom Of The Press ; similar publications existed in some developing countries and as part of the '' Samizdat '' movement in the Communist State s, notably Czechoslovakia . Published as weeklies, monthlies, or even "occasionals", and usually associated with Left-wing Politics , they evolved on the one hand into today's Alternative Weeklies and on the other into Zine s. THE UNDERGROUND PRESS IN AUSTRALIA The most prominent underground publication in Australia was a satirical magazine called '' Oz '' (1963 to 1969), which owed an obvious debt to the UK magazine '' Private Eye ''. THE UNDERGROUND PRESS IN THE UK In London , Barry Miles , John Hopkins and others produced '' International Times '' which, following legal threats was renamed ''IT''. Richard Neville arrived in London from Australia where he had edited ''Oz'' (1963 to 1969). He launched a British version (1967 to 1973), which was A4 (as opposed to ''IT'' Neville published an account of the Counterculture called ''Playpower'', in which he described most of the world's underground publications. He also listed many of the regular key topics from those publications including Vietnam, Black Power, Politics, Police Brutality, Hippies & Lifestyle Revolution, Drugs, Popular Music, New Society, Cinema, Theatre, Graphics, Cartoons etc. The underground press offered a platform to the socially impotent and mirrored the changing way of life in the UK Underground . Police harassment of the British underground in general became commonplace to the point that in 1967 the police particularly focussed on the "source of the antagonism": the underground press. Harassment had the opposite effect than was intended: if anything, it made the underground press stronger. "It focused attention, stiffened resolve, and tended to confirm that what we were doing was considered dangerous to the establishment." remembered on 29 April , 1967. By the end of the decade, community artists and bands such as Pink Floyd , (who later "went commercial"), the Deviants , Pink Fairies , Hawkwind , Michael Moorcock and Steve Peregrin Took would arise in a symbiotic co-operation with the underground press. The underground press publicised these bands and this made it possible for them to tour and get record deals. The band members travelled around spreading the ethos and the demand for the newspapers and magazines grew and flourished for a while. The flaunting of a defiant sexuality within the underground press provoked prosecution. ''IT'' was taken to court for publishing small ads for Homosexuals , despite the legalisation of homosexuality between consenting adults in private. The ''Oz'' "School Kids" issue, brought charges against the three ''Oz'' editors who were convicted and given jail sentences. This was the first time the Obscene Publications Act 1959 was combined with a moral conspiracy charge. THE UNDERGROUND PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA '', April 13 , 1967 ]] The North American countercultural press of the 1960s drew inspiration from predecessors that had begun in the 1950s, such as the '' Village Voice '' and Paul Krassner's satirical paper '' The Realist .'' Arguably, the first underground newspaper of the '60s was the '' Los Angeles Free Press '', founded in 1964 and first published under that name in 1965. By 1967, the cooperative Underground Press Syndicate (UPS) was formed at the instigation of the publisher of another early paper, the '' East Village Other ''. The UPS allowed member papers to freely reprint content from any of the other member papers. Other prominent underground papers included the '' San Francisco Oracle ,'' the '' Berkeley Barb '' and '' Berkeley Tribe '' ( Berkeley, California ); '' Fifth Estate '' ( Detroit ), '' Other Scenes '' (dispatched from various locations around the world by John Wilcox ); '' The Helix '' ( Seattle ); The '' Chicago Seed ''; '' The Great Speckled Bird '' ( Atlanta ); '' The Rag ,'' ( Austin, Texas ); '' Rat '' (later " Women's LibeRATion ") ( New York City ), and in Canada , '' Georgia Straight '' ( Vancouver ). By 1969, virtually every sizeable city or college town in North America boasted at least one underground newspaper. The underground press phenomenon proved short-lived. By 1973, many underground papers had folded, at which point the Underground Press Syndicate acknowledged the passing of the undergrounds and renamed itself the Alternative Press Syndicate. That organization soon collapsed, to be supplanted by the Association Of Alternative Newsweeklies . During the 1960s and 1970s there were also a number of Left Political Periodicals with some of the same concerns of the underground press. Some of these periodicals joined the Underground Press Syndicate to gain services such as microfilming, advertising, and the free exchange of articles and newspapers. Examples include '' The Black Panther '' (the paper of the Black Panther Party , Oakland, California ), and the '' Guardian '', New York City; both of which had national distribution. The U.S. Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) conducted surveillance and disruption activities on the underground press in the United States, including a campaign to destroy the Alternative Agency Liberation News Service . As part of its COINTELPRO designed to discredit and infiltrate radical New Left groups, the FBI also launched phony underground newspapers such as the ''Armageddon News'' at the University Of Indiana At Bloomington , ''The Longhorn Tale'' at the University Of Texas At Austin , and the ''Rational Observer'' at American University in Washington, D.C. The FBI also ran the Pacific International News Service in San Francisco, the Chicago Midwest News, and the New York Press Service. ''Georgia Straight'' outlived the underground movement, evolving into an Alternative Weekly still published today; ''Fifth Estate'' survives as an Anarchist magazine. Most others died with the era. Given the nature of alternative journalism as a subculture, some staff members from underground newspapers became staff on the newer alternative weeklies, even though there was seldom institutional continuity with management or ownership. An example is the transition in Denver from the underground '' Chinook '', to '' Straight Creek Journal '', to '' Westword '' {Link without Title} , an alternative weekly still in publication. Some underground and alternative reporters, cartoonists, and artists moved on to work in corporate media or in academia. REFERENCES
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