Poster of the Week

Out Against the War
Anticapitalist Asspirates/Asspirateurs Anticapitalistes
Digital Print, 2005
Montreal, Canada

“Don't Ask Don't Tell” Repealed

On 22 December 2010, President Barack Obama signed landmark legislation allowing openly gay people to serve in the military. Don't Ask Don't Tell, which barred gay people in the military from revealing their sexual orientation, had been in effect since President Bill Clinton introduced it as a compromise measure in 1993. Prior to DADT, lesbian and gay service members had been court-martialed, imprisoned, dishonorably discharged, and/or committed to military hospitals.

As many uncritically celebrate the repeal of DADT, CSPG’s Poster-of-the-Week focuses on a much less publicized perspective which objects to anyone joining the military to fight unjust imperial wars.

In October 2010, Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow.org hosted an important debate between Lt. Dan Choi, Iraqi War veteran who was discharged after coming out in 2009 on The Rachel Maddow Show, and queer anti-war activist and writer Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. Celebrating the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, Sycamore says, only makes progressive movements in the U.S. complicit with American wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The program raised the question: Should the queer rights movement have been focused on repealing the Don't Ask Don't Tell law? Did Opposing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Bolster U.S. Militarism?

To see this debate:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/22/does_opposing_dont_ask_dont_tell

Out Against the War is also featured in CSPG’s newest exhibition, Out of the Closet & Into the Street: Posters on LGBTQ Struggles and Celebrations which can be seen on our website: www.politicalgraphics.org

Additional reading:

Following the repeal of DADT, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink: Women for Peace, wrote :“To the LGBT Community: Now That You Can Join the Military, Please Don't!”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/medea-benjamin/to-the-gay-community-now-_b_799647.html

May the New Year Bring us Closer to Peace with Justice

Poster of the Week

How Can You Worship A Homeless Man On Sunday And Ignore One On Monday?
Coalition for the Homeless
Offset, 1990s,
New York, New York

During this season of celebration and reflection, this poster goes right to the heart of the hypocrisy demonstrated during the recent tax debate. Bush’s tax breaks will continue, unemployment benefits to millionaires, millionaires will pay LESS taxes, while families making under $20,000 a year will actually see their taxes INCREASE. Why aren’t we taking to the streets like the outraged citizens of Greece, Ireland, Britain and France?

Speaking of hypocrisy, let’s not forget the stalled 9/11 health care bill. Jon Stewart’s December 16th program on Comedy Central had some of the First Responders to the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center discuss Republican hypocrisy.

See it on: http://www.thedailyshow.com/

Also on: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jon-stewart-rants-republican-filibuster-911-responder-bill/story?id=12422872

A Musical Gift to Us All - Tom Morello, Rage Against the Machine guitarist, selected his favorite protest songs for Rolling Stone, The Playlist Issue, December 9, 2010. Not only are they inspiring, but reminders that great people have been fighting the good fight for many generations, and that all the arts are central to this struggle. Go to http://rollingstoneextras.com/playlists/view/tom-morello

May the New Year bring us closer to Peace with Justice,

Carol A. Wells

Founder and Executive Director

Center for the Study of Political Graphics

Reclaiming the Power of Art to Educate, Agitate and Inspire People to Action

Poster of the Week

You Can Jail a Revolutionary
But You Can’t Jail the Revolution
Emory Douglas
Offset, 1969/70
Chicago, Illinois

Fred Hampton (1948 -1969)—was a charismatic and brilliant orator, organizer and head of the Chicago Black Panther Party. He was assassinated on December 4, 1969 by the F.B.I, working with the Chicago Police Department and the Illinois State Attorney’s Office.

Born in Illinois, Hampton was a student leader in high school and an activist with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1968, he joined the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party, and quickly became the Illinois State Chair of the organization. Hampton organized weekly rallies, taught political education classes, attended the Breakfast for Children program daily, and helped establish the Free People’s Clinic on Chicago’s West Side.

A powerful and eloquent speaker, he was set to be appointed the Party’s Central Committee as Chief of Staff in November 1970. Fearing Hampton’s ability to spread the Panther’s message, the FBI, through an informant, obtained a floorplan of his apartment. The same informant gave Hampton a drugged hot chocolate before he went to bed on December 3 to ensure he wouldn’t wake up. At 4:30 a.m. on December 3, 1969, the FBI raided the apartment, killing Hampton and Panther Mark Clark, and wounding several others.

COINTELPRO

The Murder of Fred Hampton was part of the Domestic Counter Intelligence Programs (COINTELPROs). COINTELPROs were covert operations designed to infiltrate, destabilize, and destroy organizations that law enforcement and government officials deemed as threats to national security. In the 1940s and 1950s, COINTELPROs were directed almost exclusively at the Socialist Workers Party and the Communist Party, USA. During the late 1960s the vast majority of COINTELPRO operations were directed against black organizations, for the purpose of causing internal dissent and conflicts with other black organizations. The special COINTELPRO division labeled “Black Propaganda” included fabricated publications designed to give organizations a bad public image, fabricated cartoons and letters to foster tensions between groups, infiltration by informers, false rumors, fabricated evidence, and police assaults. In August 1967, the FBI launched a COINTELPRO operation against the Panthers which contributed to the Panther's siege mentality.

References:

Hampton's death was chronicled in the powerful 1971 documentary film The Murder of Fred Hampton, as well as an episode of the critically acclaimed documentary series Eyes on the Prize.

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

Poster of the Week

Connie Norman
Artist Unknown
Photocopy, 1996
Los Angeles, California
34015

I often tell people that I am an ex-drag queen, ex-hooker, ex-IV drug user, ex-high risk youth, and current postoperative transsexual woman who is HIV-positive.

– Connie Norman

Born in Texas, Norman fled to Hollywood at the age of 14. Having recovered from drug addiction, Norman underwent therapy and then a sex-change operation in 1976. She began her political life as an AIDS and Queer activist with the Los Angeles chapter of ACT UP. In 1991 she transformed the media landscape by becoming the first openly queer host of a commercial talk radio show. “The Connie Norman Show” aired daily on XEK-AM where she was able to share her views on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) and human rights issues. In 1993 Norman became the first transgender Director of Public Policy at AIDS Service Center in Pasadena, a California non-profit agency. Norman’s reach was broad, as she also co-hosted an LGBTQ Cable TV program and was a newspaper columnist for a San Diego publication. Because of her unyielding activism, she was honored with awards from various groups including the City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, California State Senate and California Assembly. ACT UP/LA never gave an award or honor to anyone except Norman. Just before her passing they made official her self-proclaimed status as “AIDS Diva”. Her ashes were scattered on the lawn of the Clinton White House as part of the national ACT UP "Ashes Action" on October 13, 1996. Her legacy is sustained by Christopher Street West who established the Connie Norman Award to honor an individual or organization for outstanding achievement in fostering racial, ethnic, religious, and gender unity within the LGBTQ community.

World AIDS DAY

AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since 1981 and an estimated 33.3 million people worldwide, including at least 2.5 million children, live with HIV, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history.

World AIDS Day 2010 is all about raising awareness to tackle HIV prejudice and help stop the spread of HIV. The First World AIDS Day was December 1, 1988. In its first two years, the theme of World AIDS Day focused on children and young people. These themes were strongly criticized at the time for ignoring the fact that people of all ages may become infected with HIV and suffer from AIDS. But the themes drew attention to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, helped alleviate some of the stigma surrounding the disease, and helped boost recognition of the problem as a family disease.

The theme for 2010 is Universal Access and Human Rights. The protection of human rights is fundamental to combating the global HIV and AIDS epidemic. Violations against human rights fuel the spread of HIV, putting marginalized groups, like injecting drug users and sex workers, at a higher risk of HIV infection. By promoting individual human rights, new infections can be prevented and people who have HIV can live free from discrimination.

For more information about HIV/AIDS and World AIDS Day, please visit:

http://www.thenation.com/blog/156752/world-aids-day

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

http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm

Poster of the Week

Freedom to Lead

Shepherd Fairey

Human Rights Action Center

Offset, 2009

Los Angeles, California

CSPG’s Poster-of-the-Week celebrates the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate. After spending more than 15 years in detention, most of it under house arrest, continued international pressure from human rights activists finally led to her release by the military junta on November 13, 2010. Aung San Suu Kyi has come to symbolize the struggle of Burma’s people to be free.

Aung San Suu Kyi may have been released but there are still more than 2,200 political prisoners in Burma. For more information on Aung San Suu Kyi and the history of Burma (renamed Myanmar by the military dictatorship in 1989), go to:

http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/index.php/burma/about-burma/about-burma/a-biography-of-aung-san-suu-kyi

Poster of the Week

East Timor An Act Of Genocide
Carolyn C. King; East Timor Human Rights Committee
Offset, January 1981
Syracuse, New York

CSPG’s Poster-of-the-Week commemorates a massacre that took place 19 years ago this week in East Timor by Indonesian paramilitary forces. Although our featured poster was produced ten years before this specific massacre, it represents the decades of genocide that took place in East Timor during 25 years of Indonesian occupation.

On November 12th 1991, Indonesian troops opened fire on unarmed civilians, primarily young people, who were staging a peaceful demonstration in Dili, East Timor’s capital and largest city—271 were killed, 381 were wounded and another 270 people “disappeared.” The day started as a memorial procession and independence demonstration through the Santa Cruz Cemetery, and international journalists were present. Two American journalists, Amy Goodman and Allan Nairn, were beaten when they tried to intervene between the military and the civilians, but survived.

The massacre, known either as the Santa Cruz Massacre or the Dili Massacre fueled the movement to restore independence to East Timor, which finally occurred in 2002, however the troops and officials responsible for the attack have yet to come to justice.

Countless East Timorese were murdered since Indonesia invaded the island in 1975…with full U.S. approval. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met with Indonesian President Suharto on the day before the invasion and reportedly gave their approval for the invasion. During the Indonesian occupation, more than 200,000 East Timorese were killed out of a population of less than 700,000.

For more information:

http://www1.ci.uc.pt/timor/stc2.htm

www.democracynow.org has many features on the Dili Massacre.

Poster of the Week

Liberty
Gee Vaucher
Offset, 2004
London, UK

CSPG’s Poster-of-the-Week is a graphic response to the state of the union, the elections, the Democrats, the Republicans, the Tea Party, the wars, the economy, climate change and anything else that is disturbing. Viewer’s comments are welcome

East London born Gee Vaucher started gaining recognition designing politically outspoken record covers and newsletters for the British anarchist punk band Crass (1977-1984). Her work became a strong influence for protest art as well as the punk and anarchist aesthetic of her time. She used her surrealist influenced collage style and stencil lettering to incite social change, exposing the ills of civil society with frank and often disturbing imagery. Vaucher continues to create extraordinarily insightful imagery that strips away society’s veneer to reveal hidden truths. Her work is hard-hitting with a gripping aesthetic and has been exhibited internationally as well as been included in a number of books and publications.

For more about Gee Vaucher see:

http://art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/01

http://flavorpill.com/sanfrancisco/events/2007/12/14/gee-vaucher-introspective