Poster of the Week

Heroism 
A Ride Till The End (ARTTE)
Digital Print, 2011
Arkansas 

SIGN DANIEL ELLSBERG’S PETITION TO FREE BRADLEY MANNING

http://www.bradleymanning.org/featured/sign-daniel-ellsbergs-petition-to-free-bradley-manning-2

United States Army Pfc. Bradley Manning (born 1987), held since May 2010, was sentenced today to 35 years for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks an anti-secrecy website. These documents include a video showing a U.S. Apache helicopter crew killing unarmed civilians and two Reuters journalists in Iraq. The pilots then kill an Iraqi Good Samaritan, who, with his children, had stopped to help the wounded. The American pilots seem cheerful and trigger-happy. They joke about the sounds a tank makes rolling over a corpse. For releasing this and other war crimes committed by the U.S., Manning was tortured and held in solitary confinement for the first 10 months of his arrest until public pressure helped end this illegal phase of his imprisonment. Many consider him to be a hero following in the footsteps of Daniel Ellsberg who released the Pentagon Papers exposing U.S. government lies about the Viet Nam War.

This poster was originally created for Bradley Manning Solidarity Weekend on April 9-10, 2011, organized by A Ride Till The End (ARTTE). Events were held in 13 cities across the country, including New Orleans.  The weekend was “Bradley Manning: Rebel With a Cause Bicycle Tour,” a 444-mile ride which began in March 21, 2011 in and ended in Nashville, Tennesee on April 8th, to raise awareness and funds for Bradley Manning's defense. The graphic was available for download on the organizations website. ARTTE is a speaking bureau/performance art collective of veterans and artists riding bicycles around the U.S. raising awareness about the situation in Afghanistan and related issues until the Afghanistan occupation ends. http://www.operationawareness.org/ 

Additional sources

Democracynow.org has covered Bradley Manning extensively. http://www.democracynow.org/2013/6/4/bradley_manning_trial_wikileaks_lawyer_sees

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/370-wikileaks/17774-bradley- manning-a-soldier-for-truth-on-trial 

Sign the petition to award Bradley Manning the Nobel Peace Prize:

http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=7612 

Watch a short video titled: "I AM BRADLEY MANNING" At: www.iam.bradleymanning.org

Featuring: Daniel Ellsberg, Oliver Stone, Alice Walker, Phil Donahue, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Russell Brand, Tom Morello, Wallace Shawn, Moby, Michael Ratner, Lt. Dan Choi, Matt Taibbi & Many Others

Poster of the Week

“An open society cannot survive a secret government.” Bill Moyers

White House Secret Society
Sheila Pinkel
Digital Inkjet, 2008
Los Angeles, CA

In light of recent disclosures by Edward Snowdon and other whistleblowers, Bill Moyers' quote has become even more relevant.

Artist’s statement:

I made this digital ink jet poster in 2008 because I was increasingly concerned that the Patriot Act has resulted in the erosion of civil liberties in the United States, especially the loss of legal representation for people accused of being terrorists or undocumented people. In 2007, I had made the poster "Patriot Axe" about the loss constitutional rights because of the Patriot Act. I read Bill Moyers book "The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis" because I wanted to better understand his perspective on this subject. Although this book was published in 1988, his quote, which I found in it, gave voice to the concerns of myself and many people on the left who were watching civil liberties erode since the passage of the Patriot Act. And with that erosion came my growing sense that the government was not transparent and that a multiplicity of non-visible agendas were directing domestic and foreign policy.
Sheila Pinkel, 2013