Poster of the Week

This Is Apartheid, Don't Buy It
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
Offset, circa 1980s
London, United Kingdoms
17675

CSPG’s Poster of the Week is one of more than 60 posters featured in BOYCOTT! – The Art of Economic Activism, an exhibition produced by the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in collaboration with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).

BOYCOTT! – The Art of Economic Activism highlights diverse historical and contemporary boycott movements from the 1950s to the present, and features more than twenty domestic and international boycotts from grapes to sweatshops, from Montgomery, Alabama to the Middle East.

Activists and solidarity groups have often responded to injustices by implementing boycott and divestment campaigns targeting companies and governments that support and sustain these injustices—and posters have been a primary tool for educating about the issues and inspiring people to action. This exhibition uses powerful posters to demonstrate the effectiveness of boycotts as a non-violent tactic to end injustice and oppression.

BOYCOTT! has been traveling around the U.S. since September 2013, and is currently in Los Angeles at Mercado La Paloma through June 29, 2014.

Mercado La Paloma
3655 S Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90007

On Friday, May 30, there will be a reception and panel from 7-10 pm.  On Saturday, May 31,there will be an exhibition tour and political poster making workshop from 2 – 6 pm.  All events are free and open to the public.

“Nonviolent protest is the most effective weapon of an oppressed people.”
                                                                                                —Martin Luther King, Jr.

Poster of the Week

Bring Back Our Girls

Artist unknown
Digital, 2014
Stone Mountain, GA

 

CSPG’s Poster of the Week focuses on the April 14, 2014 kidnapping of nearly 300 girls from a boarding school in Northern Nigeria. 53 escaped and two have died.  Of the 234 remaining in captivity, some have been sold, others forced to marry their captors.  Boko Haram, Islamic militants opposed to western education claimed responsibility. They kidnapped eight more girls, aged 12-15 May 5.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian government has done little other than spread false stories that the girls were rescued.  Nigerian  President Goodluck Jonathan vowed to win the girls’ release, but hours later, police arrested two women who helped organize protests over the government’s seeming inaction. The two had just met with first lady Patience Jonathan, who accused them of fabricating the story of the abduction in order to embarrass her husband’s government.  International embarrassment may be the only thing motivating President Jonathan, as Nigeria will host the The World Economic Forum on Africa, on May 13, 2014. 

Demonstrations have been held throughout the world, including Georgia, Los Angeles, New York, London and Ottawa.  CSPG’s featured poster promoted a rally in Georgia.  Another powerful poster is designed simply as words printed on a lined yellow sheet of paper, as one might find in any elementary school:

Clippers owner makes racist

comment and everyone protests.

Miley Cyrus twerks and we all talk.

Justin Bieber is arrested and it is on

all the news stations.  Kim and Kanye

have a baby and social media blow up.

           

234 GIRLS are KIDNAPPED from school in

Nigeria TWO WEEKS AGO

And no one cares.

#bringbackourgirls

CSPG is looking for posters about this and other issues.  Please contact us.  

Sources:

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/5/6/bring_back_our_girls_nigerians_caught 
http://rollingout.com/photos/entertainment-photos-photos/instagram-supports-nigeria-bringbackourgirls-memes/attachment/nigerian-girls-abducted-bring-back-our-girls-1/ 
http://www.essence.com/2014/05/06/report-8-more-girls-kidnapped-nigerian-village/