Poster of the Week

Amerika Is Devouring Its Children

Jay Belloli

Silkscreen, 1970

Berkeley, CA

18120

CSPG’s Poster of the Week commemorates the tragic death of Aaron Swartz.  It epitomizes the complicity of the state in destroying one of the most creative and productive of our youth.  Aaron’s commitment to democracy and open access to information was threatening to an increasingly authoritarian state. On January 11, 2013, 26 year old Aaron committed suicide, unable to face the prison sentence he was threatened with by overzealous prosecutors.  Aaron was being charged with allegedly illegally hacking into a network at MIT to download scholarly articles only accessible through an expensive subscription service. He had previously said the knowledge belonged to the world.

Although Congressional criticism is mounting against the Federal prosecutors, and both Democrats and Republicans are questioning whether he had been inappropriately targeted, it’s too late for Aaron. 

The title, Amerika is Devouring Its Children, speaks directly to the U.S. Justice Department treating the best of its youth as enemies to be destroyed.

Aaron Swartz

PRESENTE!           

Background to Poster:
In April 1970, when the U.S. invaded Cambodia, a neutral country during the Viet Nam War, college campuses throughout the US erupted in protest, and one-third of them shut down.  At Kent State University in Ohio, four students were killed by national guardsmen deployed to repress the protests. Two days later, two students were killed at Jackson State College in Mississippi.

Outraged by the escalating violence abroad and at home, students at the University of California, Berkeley walked out of their classes.  They silkscreened over 100 designs such as this onto reams of used computer paper, transforming the Goya into an anti-Viet Nam War statement.

Sources:

http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2013/1/14/freedom_to_connect_aaron_swartz_1986

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-aaron-swartz-congressional-scrutiny-20130118,0,640020.story

Poster of the Week

Renew Our Common Struggle
Peg Averill; Art for People
Silkscreen, 1975
Washington, D.C.

40th Anniversary of Kent State: 4 Students Killed by US National Guard

In March 1969, President Nixon ordered the bombing of Cambodia, a country neighbouring Viet Nam. As this was an escalation and widening of an unpopular war, and because Cambodia was a neutral country, the Nixon administration tried to keep it a secret from the American people. An estimated 100,000 peasants died in the bombing, while 2 million people were left homeless.

In April 1970, Nixon ordered US troops into Cambodia. When the invasion was announced, US college campuses erupted in protest, and one-third of them shut down due to student walkouts. At Kent State University in Ohio, four students were killed by panicky national guardsmen who had been called up to prevent rioting. Two days later, two students were killed at Jackson State College in Mississippi.