Poster of the Week

 BAZAAR

George Stowe Jr.

Offset, 1970

Los Angeles, CA

9528

Harper’s Bazaar, a haute couture fashion magazine, is spoofed with this faux cover showing anticipated fashions five years into the polluted future.  Unfortunately, the warning wasn’t heeded, and the situation is worse now than ever imagined forty years ago. 

As the polar ice caps melt faster than predicted, storms are more severe, and droughts are breaking records, there is still inaction and even denial about climate change.  In the aftermath of failed climate-change legislation last year, the Keystone XL Pipeline has become a lightning rod for the U.S environmental movement.

Last Sunday, February 17, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Washington D.C.—the  largest climate rally in history—to protest the Keystone XL Pipeline.  Simultaneous rallies were held throughout the country, including in Los Angeles, Oakland and Seattle.  President Obama seems to have HEARD the demands not to approve the pipeline, because he has repeatedly postponed his decision to allow or prevent the pipeline.  It remains to be seen, however, if he has LISTENED. 

This poster is part of CSPG’s “Decade of Dissent:  Democracy in Action 1965-1975” at the Santa Monica Art Studios, ARENA 1 Gallery, 3026 Airport Ave, Santa Monica, CA

Opening reception: Saturday, February 23, 6-8pm

Through March 23, 2013

Free admission

For more information: 310-397-7449

Sources:

http://climate-connections.org

http://www.sierraclub.org/environmentallaw/lawsuits/0476.aspx

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/16099-tens-of-thousands-rally-to-stop-keystone-xl-pipeline

Poster of the Week

February 14, 2013

Halte aux Violences Domestiques

Geoffroy de Boismenu

Amnesty International

Offset, circa 2007

Paris, France

28696

Translation:

Stop Domestic Violence 

Violence against women is a universal sport. 

Valentine’s Day, February 14, has long been used to evoke expressions of love—while simultaneously stimulating the economy —with the exchange of cards, flowers, candy and candlelit dinners.  But the romantic veneer of the one day a year called Valentine’s Day overlooks the more brutal reality of daily domestic violence.  But violence against women is an international epidemic, and the perpetrators are family, friends and strangers.   

From Valentine’s Day to V-Day

February 14, 2013, is also the 15^th anniversary of V-Day,  a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls.  V-Day was founded in 1998 by author, playwright and activist Eve Ensler, whose acclaimed 1996 The Vagina Monologues is credited with inspiring the formation of V-Day. V-Day generates broad attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), and sex slavery.

V-Day is now celebrated all over the world—in 2012, over 5,800 V-Day benefit events took place, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls. In conjunction with the 15th anniversary, V-Day launched its most ambitious campaign to date—ONE BILLION RISING.

The V-Day website explains the campaign:  “The concept of the campaign is simple. If you take into account the statistic that 1 out of 3 women will experience violence in her lifetime, you are left with the staggering statistic that over 1 billion women on this planet will be impacted by violence. On V-Day's 15th Anniversary, 2.14.13, we are inviting ONE BILLION women and those who love them to WALK OUT, DANCE, RISE UP, and DEMAND an end to this violence. V-Day wants the world to see our collective strength, our numbers, our solidarity across borders.”

Sources:

http://www.vday.org

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/2/14/one_billion_rising_playwright_eve_ensler

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-Day_%28movement%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vagina_Monologues

Poster of the Week

Poster of the Week – February 8, 2012

I have a Dream/I have a Drone

Artist Unknown

Digital image

Circa 2013

CSPG’s Poster of the Week for Black History Month is a powerful visual commentary on the ideals articulated by Martin Luther King, Jr., in contrast with the political agenda pursued by President Barack Obama. This striking image also highlights the content of the confirmation hearings that took place this week, regarding Obama’s nomination of John Brennan to be head of the CIA.

John Brennan is chief counterterrorism advisor to President Barack Obama. Although he had been with the CIA for 25 years, Brennan withdrew his name from consideration for Director of the CIA in the first Obama administration over concerns about his support for the use of torture by the CIA under President George W. Bush. Instead, Obama appointed Brennan to be Deputy National Security Advisor, a position which did not require Senate confirmation.

After Obama nominated Brennan in January 2013 to be the next director of the CIA, the ACLU called for the Senate to not proceed with the appointment until it confirms that "all of his conduct was within the law" at the CIA and White House.

At his confirmation hearing on Thursday, February 8, Brennan forcefully defended Obama’s counterterrorism policies, including the increased use of armed drones and the targeted killings of American citizens.  Jeremy Scahill, author of the forthcoming book, "Dirty Wars," commented on Brennan’s responses on DemocracyNow.org, "None of the central questions that should have been asked of John Brennan were asked in an effective way.  In the cases where people like Sen. Angus King or Sen. Ron Wyden would ask a real question, for instance, about whether or not the CIA has the right to kill U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, the questions were very good. Brennan would then offer up a non-answer. And then there’d be almost no follow-up." Scahill went on to say, "[Brennan] has served for more than four years as the assassination czar, and it basically looked like they were discussing purchasing a used car on Capitol Hill. I mean, it was total kabuki oversight. And that’s a devastating commentary on where things stand."

When will we ever learn?

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_O._Brennan

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/2/8/jeremy_scahill_assassinations_of_us_citizens

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/john-brennan-senate-confirmation-hearing-drone