Poster of the Week

Pray For the Dead
Northland Poster Collective
Silkscreen, no date
Minneapolis, MN
19038

This week’s poster features a quote from Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, an Irish-American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a tireless labor and community organizer. Mary Harris Jones began working as an organizer for the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers Union after her husband and four children died of yellow fever and lost all of her possessions in the great Chicago fire of 1871. She committed herself to the labor struggle for humane wages and working conditions and participated in hundreds of strikes across the country from the late 1870s through the early 1920s. In the 1890s, Mother Jones became an organizer for United Mine Workers in West Virginia, mobilizing miners’ wives to march with brooms and mops in order to block strikebreakers from entering the mines. When Jones was denounced on the floor of the United States Senate as the "grandmother of all agitators," she replied, “I hope to live long enough to be the great-grandmother of all agitators.”

Following in Mother Jones’ footsteps, this week, fast food workers around the country are planning a set of one-day walkouts, according to Fast Food Forward, an organizing group for the protests. The strikes will take place in 150 cities at restaurants such as McDonald’s, Wendy’s and KFC. Over the past two years, fast-food workers have been actively organizing the “Fight for 15” campaign to demand pay of $15 an hour—what they call a living wage—and the right to unionize. This past July, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that McDonald’s is jointly responsible for wage and labor violations that are enacted by its franchise owners.

On Monday, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced plans to raise the minimum wage to $13.25 by 2017. Los Angeles has the highest percentage of its population living in poverty, with 28% of Angelenos today living below the poverty line. Thirteen states increased their minimum wages at the start of the year by an average of 28¢, and the city of Seattle has approved a $15 minimum wage.

http://time.com/3223048/fast-food-strikes-150-cities/

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-broad-minimum-wage-20140902-story.html

http://www.fembio.org/english/biography.php/woman/biography/mary-harris-mother-jones/

Poster of the Week

Cesar Chavez Memorial Poster

Juan Fuentes

La Raza Graphics

Silkscreen, 1993

San Francisco, CA

16069

Cesar E. Chavez Day, March 31, is recognized as a state holiday in California, Colorado and Texas, and efforts are ongoing to make it into a national holiday. California was the first state to proclaim the holiday, a result of organizing by Los Angeles volunteers. This marked the first time that a labor leader or Latino has been honored with a public legal holiday.* The holiday is celebrated in California on Cesar E. Chavez’s birthday March 31st. 

When the National Farm Workers Association was co-founded by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, they accomplished what was thought to be impossible—the organizing of poor and uneducated farm laborers.  Born on March 31, 1927, near Yuma, Arizona, Chavez was no stranger to the struggle of farm labor.  His family lost their small farm during the depression and moved to San Jose, California, where they worked as migrant farmers.  As a child, Chavez also worked in the fields to help out the family.  His father had belonged to farm labor unions, and Chavez himself had belonged to the National Farm Labor Union.  In the 1950s, Chavez became an organizer for the Community Service Organization (CSO), and learned grass root strategies.  In 1958, he became CSO director for California and Arizona.  Chavez became interested in organizing a labor union for farm workers, and tried to convince CSO to develop a farm labor union.  When his ideas were rejected, Chavez resigned from the organization in 1962.  He moved to Delano, where he and other activists including Dolores Huerta, founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later became the UFW. 

In September 1965, 1500 Filipino grape pickers in Delano, California, members of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) went out on strike to protest years of poor pay and conditions. They asked the NFWA to join the strike. One week later NWFA’s 1200-member families voted to join the strike. In response to Cesar’s condition that strikers take a solemn vow to remain nonviolent, the strikers turned to boycotts. This strike changed the face of agriculture in the United States. In 1966, the Filipino American AWOC and the Mexican and Mexican American NFWA merged to form the United Farm Workers.

Until his death in 1993, Chávez remained the head of the UFW.  He continued to live as he did in the 1960s, sleeping four hours, meditating and attending daily mass.  He continued to use fasts as a way of calling attention to the farm workers’ demands.  He was both a charismatic and controversial leader.  His anti-communism and inability to delegate authority weakened the union at the same time that his dedication and vision strengthened it.  Chávez gave people La Causa (The Cause) to fight for the rights and dignity of everyone.

*http://www.cesarchavezholiday.org/aboutus.html

Poster of the Week

International Women’s Day

New American Movement (NAM)

Salsedo Press

Offset, circa 1977

Chicago, IL

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

On March 8, l857, women from the garment and textile industry in New York demonstrated to protest low wages, the 12‑hour workday,  and increasing workloads.  They asked for improved working  conditions and equal pay for all working women. Their march was  dispersed by the police. Some of the women were arrested and  some were injured. Three years later, in March of 1860, these women formed their own  union and again called for these demands to be met.  On March 8, 1908, thousands of women from the needles trade  industry demonstrated for the same demands. They also asked for laws against child labor and laws for the right of women to vote.  They declared March 8 to be Women's Day.

In 1910, Clara Zetkin, a German labor leader, proposed that March 8  be proclaimed International Women's Day in memory of those women who had fought for better lives.  For almost 80 years, March 8  has been celebrated in many countries, but has only been commemorated widely in the United States since 1970 with the development of the Women's Liberation Movement.

CSPG’s Poster of the Week was produced by the New American Movement (NAM), a socialist-feminist organization established in 1971.  NAM was part of the New Left that formed during the Viet Nam War.  In 1982, NAM merged with Michael Harrington’s Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) to establish Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Poster of the Week

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire 1911/2011

Laura Tolkow

Offset, 2011

New York

CSPG’s Poster of the Week commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the tragic 1911Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, horrifically evokes this week’s tragic headlines about the deadly fire in Bangladesh. On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City and 146 workers died, mostly young Italian and Jewish immigrant women.  On Saturday, November 24, 2012, a fire in a Bangladesh garment factory killed 112, and more bodies may be found.

In 1911 New York and 2012 Bangladesh, many workers died because the factory bosses ordered the exit doors to be locked and ignored safety issues. In Bangladesh there were also dummy fire extinguishers, and bosses who ordered the employees back to work after fire alarms went off. There were no emergency exits.

The Poster of the Week includes the statement, “This fire changed America." This is partially true.  The outrage resulting from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire let to stronger health and safety conditions in many U.S. workplaces. Unfortunately, it did not prevent corporations from producing their items overseas, where sweatshop conditions are rampant.

Bangladesh is the second largest exporter of ready-to-wear clothing after China, exporting about $18 billion worth of garments a year. Employees in the country’s factories are among the world’s lowest-paid, with entry-level workers making the government-mandated minimum wage of about $37 a month or slightly above. Tensions have been running high between workers, who have been demanding an increase in minimum wages, and the factory owners and government. A union organizer, Aminul Islam, who campaigned for better working conditions and higher wages, was found tortured and killed outside Dhaka this year.

Bangladesh has about 4,500 garment factories that make clothes for stores including Tesco, Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney, H&M, Marks & Spencer, Kohl's and Carrefour. Although photos of charred Wal-Mart “Faded Glory” labels have been shown on television and the net, Wal-Mart is denying that they still used that clothing factory, saying that it was no longer authorized to produce merchandise for the company. However, the International Labor Rights Forum, which tracks fires in the Bangladesh garment industry, said documents and logos found in the debris indicated that the factory produced clothes for Walmart’s Faded Glory line as well as for other American and foreign companies.

When will we ever learn!

Sources:

Poster available from Syracuse Cultural Workers:

http://syracuseculturalworkers.com/poster-triangle-shirtwaist-factory-fire

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

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/world/asia/bangladesh-fire-kills-more-than-100-and-injures-many.html?_r=0

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-bangladesh-fire-walmart-20121127,0,2193699.story?track=rss

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/26/world/asia/bangladesh-fire-mourning/index.html

Poster of the Week

El Pueblo, Unido, Jamas Sera Vencido

The Workers, United, Will Never Be Defeated

Dan Jones

Labour May Day Committee 

Offset, 1980

London, UK

11033

CSPG’s Poster of the Week celebrates worker solidarity, perfect for Labor Day.  The title comes from one of the most internationally renowned songs of the Nueva Cancion Chilena (New Chilean Song) movement, composed and recorded in June 1973.  Just a few months later, on September 11, 1973, a U.S. engineered military coup overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende.  After the Chilean coup, the song became the anthem of the Chilean resistance against the brutal U.S. supported Pinochet regime. El Pueblo, Unido, Jamas Sera Vencido continues to be used in various protests around the world, most of which have no direct connection to the Chilean coup or Latin America. The lyrics have been adapted or translated into many languages.

The poster shows workers from diverse trades and countries holding signs with a variety of demands and slogans including:

• El Pueblo, Unido, Jamas Sera Vencido  The Workers, United, Will Never Be Defeated
• Work Not Dole
• We Require 8 Hours For Work  8 Hours For Our Instruction  And 8 Hours For Our Repose
•  8 Hour Day 
• The People's Flag Is Deepest Red, It Shrouded Oft Our Martyred Dead 
•  Debut D'Une Lutte Prolongee 
• Pan Trabajo Y Libertad 

History of Labor Day

Labor Day may be over 100 years old, but its history continues to be politically charged and open to interpretation. The observation of Labor Day on the first Monday in September is usually attributed to the Knights of Labor who held their first parade in New York on September 5, 1882. By 1887, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Oregon all celebrated Labor Day on the first Monday of September, and in 1894, the first Monday was established as a Federal holiday in the U.S.

But eight years earlier, in 1889, May 1 was selected as a day to celebrate workers by the Second Socialist International. That date was selected to commemorate the Haymarket Massacre, an important but rarely taught event in U.S. history.  [Haymarket Massacre discussed below]

So the question can be raised, Why does the American worker celebrate Labor Day in September when internationally, workers celebrate it on May 1^st  in commemoration of American Martyrs to the labor movement? This question is clarified by the fact that May first is observed unilaterally by workers (not by management), while the September holiday is enjoyed by all, perpetuating the myth that Labor and Management are both working together. The proclamation of Labor Day in September in the United States has been interpreted as an effort to isolate U.S. workers from colleagues around the world, and obscure the history of what Management did to Labor in Chicago in 1886. That said, it is important to know the history of both holidays.  It is also important to note that U.S. workers get far fewer holidays than workers in other industrialized nations.  Whether or not Labor Day was established to deflect attention—and awareness—from the history of May Day, it is still a great time to celebrate workers accomplishments and express labor solidarity.

Haymarket Massacre

On May 1, 1886 demonstrations in support of the 8-hour day took place all across the country.  Chicago's was the biggest with an estimated 80,000 marching on Michigan Avenue, much to the alarm of Chicago's business leaders and newspapers who saw it as foreshadowing "revolution," and demanded a police crackdown.  Over the next several days, police attacked demonstrators and broke up mass meetings.  On May 4, a bomb was thrown by a still unidentified person, and both police and demonstrators were killed by the bomb and subsequent police shootings.  In the aftermath of the event, unions were raided all across the country. Eight labor organizers were prosecuted in a show trial. None were linked to the unknown bomb thrower, and some were not even present at the time. They were held to be responsible for the bomb thrower's act, because their public criticism of corporate America, the political structure, and the use of police power against the working people, was alleged to have inspired the bomber. They were found guilty in a trial, which Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld subsequently held to be grossly unfair. On June 26, 1894, Altgeld pardoned three who were still alive and in prison; but four had been hanged, and one had committed suicide.           

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_pueblo_unido_jam%C3%A1s_ser%C3%A1_vencido

http://faculty.cns.uni.edu/~campbell/gened/labour.html

http://labor-day-weekend.com/labor-day-history.htm

Poster of the Week

El Pueblo, Unido, Jamas Sera Vencido

The Workers, United, Will Never Be Defeated

Dan Jones

Labour May Day Committee 

Offset, 1980

London, UK

11033

CSPG’s Poster of the Week celebrates worker solidarity, perfect for Labor Day.  The title comes from one of the most internationally renowned songs of the Nueva Cancion Chilena (New Chilean Song) movement, composed and recorded in June 1973.  Just a few months later, on September 11, 1973, a U.S. engineered military coup overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende.  After the Chilean coup, the song became the anthem of the Chilean resistance against the brutal U.S. supported Pinochet regime. El Pueblo, Unido, Jamas Sera Vencido continues to be used in various protests around the world, most of which have no direct connection to the Chilean coup or Latin America. The lyrics have been adapted or translated into many languages.

The poster shows workers from diverse trades and countries holding signs with a variety of demands and slogans including:

• El Pueblo, Unido, Jamas Sera Vencido  The Workers, United, Will Never Be Defeated
• Work Not Dole
• We Require 8 Hours For Work  8 Hours For Our Instruction  And 8 Hours For Our Repose
•  8 Hour Day 
• The People's Flag Is Deepest Red, It Shrouded Oft Our Martyred Dead 
•  Debut D'Une Lutte Prolongee 
• Pan Trabajo Y Libertad 

History of Labor Day

Labor Day may be over 100 years old, but its history continues to be politically charged and open to interpretation. The observation of Labor Day on the first Monday in September is usually attributed to the Knights of Labor who held their first parade in New York on September 5, 1882. By 1887, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Oregon all celebrated Labor Day on the first Monday of September, and in 1894, the first Monday was established as a Federal holiday in the U.S.

But eight years earlier, in 1889, May 1 was selected as a day to celebrate workers by the Second Socialist International. That date was selected to commemorate the Haymarket Massacre, an important but rarely taught event in U.S. history.  [Haymarket Massacre discussed below]

So the question can be raised, Why does the American worker celebrate Labor Day in September when internationally, workers celebrate it on May 1^st  in commemoration of American Martyrs to the labor movement? This question is clarified by the fact that May first is observed unilaterally by workers (not by management), while the September holiday is enjoyed by all, perpetuating the myth that Labor and Management are both working together. The proclamation of Labor Day in September in the United States has been interpreted as an effort to isolate U.S. workers from colleagues around the world, and obscure the history of what Management did to Labor in Chicago in 1886. That said, it is important to know the history of both holidays.  It is also important to note that U.S. workers get far fewer holidays than workers in other industrialized nations.  Whether or not Labor Day was established to deflect attention—and awareness—from the history of May Day, it is still a great time to celebrate workers accomplishments and express labor solidarity.

Haymarket Massacre

On May 1, 1886 demonstrations in support of the 8-hour day took place all across the country.  Chicago's was the biggest with an estimated 80,000 marching on Michigan Avenue, much to the alarm of Chicago's business leaders and newspapers who saw it as foreshadowing "revolution," and demanded a police crackdown.  Over the next several days, police attacked demonstrators and broke up mass meetings.  On May 4, a bomb was thrown by a still unidentified person, and both police and demonstrators were killed by the bomb and subsequent police shootings.  In the aftermath of the event, unions were raided all across the country. Eight labor organizers were prosecuted in a show trial. None were linked to the unknown bomb thrower, and some were not even present at the time. They were held to be responsible for the bomb thrower's act, because their public criticism of corporate America, the political structure, and the use of police power against the working people, was alleged to have inspired the bomber. They were found guilty in a trial, which Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld subsequently held to be grossly unfair. On June 26, 1894, Altgeld pardoned three who were still alive and in prison; but four had been hanged, and one had committed suicide.           

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_pueblo_unido_jam%C3%A1s_ser%C3%A1_vencido

http://faculty.cns.uni.edu/~campbell/gened/labour.html

http://labor-day-weekend.com/labor-day-history.htm

Poster of the Week

9809

Frontieres = Repression

[Borders = Repression]

Atelier Populaire

Silkscreen

Paris, 1968

It’s May.  There’s an unpopular war raging on the other side of the world.  Students are protesting and the police respond with violence.  There is high unemployment, growing poverty and immigrants are frequent targets of workers’ frustration.   It could be the U.S. in 2012, but it is Paris 1968.


In May 1968, 11 million workers went on strike throughout France. It was the largest general strike ever, and brought the economy of France to a virtual standstill.  It grew out of pent-up anger and frustration over poverty, unemployment and the conservative government of Charles de Gaulle.


The mass movement for social change began with a series of student protests and strikes that broke out at a number of universities in Paris, following confrontations with university administrators and the police. The de Gaulle administration attempted to quell those strikes by force, but the brutality of the police only inflamed the situation further.  The demonstrations soon spread into factories and resulted in an unprecedented general strike. More than 22% of the total population of France participated in the strike which went for two weeks, and almost caused the collapse of the government of President Charles de Gaulle.


The faculty and student body of the Ecole des Beaux Arts, were on strike, and a number of students met spontaneously in the lithographic department to produce the first poster of the strike. On May 16th, art students, painters from outside the university and striking workers decided to permanently occupy the art school in order to produce posters that would, "Give concrete support to the great movement of the workers on strike who are occupying their factories in defiance of the Gaullist government." The posters of the ATELIER POPULAIRE were designed and printed anonymously and were distributed for free. They were seen on the barricades, carried in demonstrations and were plastered on walls all over France. Their bold and provocative messages were extremely influential and still resonate in our own time.   CSPG’s Poster of the Week was produced during this movement, and focuses on immigrant rights.


Statement by the ATELIER POPULAIRE

"The posters produced by the ATELIER POPULAIRE are weapons in the service of the struggle and are an inseparable part of it. Their rightful place is in the centers of conflict, that is to say, in the streets and on the walls of the factories. To use them for decorative purposes, to display them in bourgeois places of culture or to consider them as objects of aesthetic interest is to impair both their function and their effect. This is why the ATELIER POPULAIRE has always refused to put them on sale. Even to keep them as historical evidence of a certain stage in the struggle is a betrayal, for the struggle itself is of such primary importance that the position of an "outside" observer is a fiction which inevitably plays into the hands of the ruling class. That is why these works should not be taken as the final outcome of an experience, but as an inducement for finding, through contact with the masses, new levels of action, both on the cultural and the political plane."

Sources:  recollectionbooks.com/bleed/images/France68/paris.htm

Johan Kugelberg, editor and Philippe Vermes, Beauty is in the Street, A visual Record of the May’68 Paris Uprising, Four Corner Books, London, 2011.

Poster of the Week

They Plan for Profits…Let Us Plan For People
International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America
Offset, no date [pre-1994]
United States

CSPG’s Poster of the Week honors Labor Day. In the U.S., Labor Day was started in September of 1882, and quickly became an official holiday at the same time May Day spread throughout the world.

The first May Day, in 1886, was a call for eight-hour workdays by the workers in many American cities; it is now mostly associated with the Haymarket Martyrs.

Labor Day is a time to celebrate the contributions American workers had given their country, unlike May Day events, which focused on the international class struggle.


Source: http://dissidentvoice.org/Articles4/Cobban_MayDay.htm

Poster of the Week

In light of the escalating attacks against immigrants and workers, from Arizona to Wisconsin, CSPG’s Poster-of-the-Week shows how these issues were combined over 35 years ago. After years of keeping their demands and demonstrations separate, May 1, 2011 will see the joining of immigrant rights and labor rights groups in demonstrations from Los Angeles to New York.

International Workers Day
Peace Press
Offset, 1975
Los Angeles, California

By demanding Jobs For All, End Deportations, U.S. Out Of Indochina & Puerto Rico this 36 year old poster links the same issues facing us today: lack of jobs, scapegoating immigrants and foreign wars. And Puerto Rico continues to be the last remaining U.S. colony.

The poster was printed at Peace Press, an anti-war Los Angeles print collective which will be the subject of an exhibition premiering September 2011 at the University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach. Peace Press Graphics 1967 – 1987: Art in the Pursuit of Social Change is part of the Getty Foundation’s initiative, Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. The exhibition and catalogue are a collaboration between the Center for the Study of Political Graphics and the University Art Museum at CSULB.

History of May Day as Worker’s Labor Day
May Day as a worker’s labor day, began in 1886, in Chicago, as a movement for the universal adoption of the eight-hour working day. (Workers had secured a limit of ten hours to the working day only a few decades earlier.) In Chicago, the center of the movement, workers had been agitating for an eight-hour day for months, and on the eve of May 1, 50,000 were already on strike. 30,000 more swelled their ranks the next day, bringing most of Chicago manufacturing to a standstill. In a notorious riot that followed (the Haymarket massacre) the 8-hour movement failed, but the Chicago events figured prominently in the founding congress of the Second International (Paris, 1889) to make May 1, 1890 a demonstration of the solidarity and power of the international working class movement. May Day has been marked ever since by parades, red flags, and an affirmation of union power and pride. Ironically, this Chicago-born holiday is celebrated more internationally than in the United States.

Posters of the Week

For All These Rights We've Just Begun to Fight
Ben Shahn
CIO Political Action Committee
Lithograph. 1946
New York, NY

Ben Shahn (1898 –1969) was a Lithuanian-born American artist, whose paintings, graphics and posters cry out for social justice. His work covered some of the most controversial issues of the day. In 1932 he completed a series on the still controversial trials of Sacco and Vanzetti, Italian immigrant labor organizers and anarchists who were executed in 1927. During World War II he worked for the U.S. Government Office of War Information (OWI) designing propaganda posters. Because his work lacked the preferred patriotism of the day only two of his posters were published. But both were memorable, especially a 1942 poster about Nazi extermination of the entire Czech village of Lidice. After the war, his work ranged from opposing nuclear weapons to supporting civil rights.

CSPG’s Poster-of-the-Week was done shortly after WWII. The enemy was no longer the Nazis, but attacks on working people and unions by the reactionary right in the U.S. Just like now. We dedicate the Poster-of-the-Week to the public employees and their supporters in Wisconsin who are fighting back, in some of the most creative and spirited ways we’ve seen in years. One protester even credited the Egyptians for inspiring the actions in the U.S. And the Wisconsin actions have in turn inspired actions in Ohio, Indiana, and support demonstrations around the country.

If you have posters about this or other issues, please send them to us.

Posted by Bruce Benidt on February 22, 2011 on http://thesamerowdycrowd.wordpress.com/

Poster of the Week

Cobre Chileno/Chilean Copper
Vicente and Antonio Larrea
Offset, 1972
Santiago, Chile

Translation:

You are the fatherland, the pampa (prairie) and people, sand, clay, school, house, resurrection, fist, offensive, order, parade, attack, wheat , struggle, grandeur, resistance.

On October 13, 2010, the world celebrated the incredible rescue of 33 Chilean miners trapped 2,000 feet underground for 69 days in a gold and copper mine near Copiapó a desert city in Northern Chile. For the first 17 days, no one knew if any had survived the mine’s collapse, and the miners were in complete isolation. As much of the world anxiously watched the miner’s harrowing ordeal, few were aware that the mine owners in their generosity did not pay the men's wages while they were trapped underground.*

The joy and relief over their rescue must also not prevent more critical views of the circumstances leading up to the collapse. The San José mine had a history of accidents: over a dozen lives have been lost there in recent years. It became so unsafe in 2007 it had to be closed – but not for long. On July 30, 2010, a Chilean labor department report warned again of “serious safety deficiencies”, but the minister took no action. Six days later, the men were entombed. We should not even be calling it an “accident” when it appears to be a crime caused by negligence and greed. **

As Chilean President Sebastian Piñera hugged each miner as they came out of the narrow escape shaft, it is important to remember how Chilean miners were murdered nearby under the Pinochet dictatorship just decades earlier.

In 1970, Salvador Allende was democratically elected President of Chile, despite active intervention by the United States to thwart his election. On September 11, 1973, Allende was overthrown by a C.I.A. instigated coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. Under Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship over 20,000 were killed or disappeared, and an estimated 1,000,000 were in exile following the coup.

On October 17, 1973, just a month after the coup and 37 years before the mine rescue— almost to the day — one of Pinochet’s death squads murdered 16 men in Copiapó, including some copper miners. This same death squad, which came to be called the Caravan of Death, killed more than 70 Chileans suspected of leftist activities that month alone.

CSPG’s Poster of the Week commemorates the period before Pinochet’s coup against Chilean democracy. The text was taken from a poem by Pablo Neruda. Its use on the poster celebrates President Salvador Allende’s nationalization of copper in 1971, Chile’s main export and a national symbol. The poster shows all classes of Chilean society united in the cause — including the soldier who, as representative of the Chilean armed forces, would (with U.S. help) oust Allende and overturn his socialist programs just one year later.

*http://www.care2.com/causes/human-rights/blog/trapped-chilean-miners-docked-pay-while-undeground/; http://randompottins.blogspot.com/2010/10/miners-are-rescued-and-their-memories.html

**Not unlike British Petroleum—BP—which has one of the worst safety records of any oil company operating in the U.S. With the April 20, 2010 explosion of the Deep Water Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, BP is responsible for the worst oil spill in U.S. history. With a long history of negligence and safety violations, this too should be called a crime, not an accident.

Read More:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/oct/13/chile-miners-rescue-mine-collapse

http://andyalcock.org/2010/10/16/rescue-of-the-chilean-miners-reminds-us-of-chiles-painful/

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20101015/ZNYT03/10153005/-1/news03?Title=Rescue-May-Redeem-a-Troubled-Past-for-Chilean-City

Poster of the Week

UCLA Labor Center Banquet
Mark Orozco Justiniani and Joy Mallari
Offset, 2005
Los Angeles, California

CSPG’s poster of the week celebrates the work of the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, which serves as a bridge between the university and the labor community in Southern California. As part of the university, the Labor Center is an important resource to interested scholars and students. Through its extensive connections with unions and workers, the Labor Center provides labor activists with access to UCLA's resources and programs.

Produced for the 2005 UCLA Labor Center Banquet, the poster depicts labor activists protesting in a Wal-Mart parking lot, highlighting the Labor Center’s work in organizing the international conference, “Is Wal-Mart Good for America?” Conference participants took part in strategic workshops analyzing Wal-mart’s history of labor practices, the impact on global economics, and the different campaigns in Southern California against Wal-Mart. Each banner in the poster represents one of the individuals honored at the 2005 banquet: California State Assembly member Karen Bass, founder of the Community Coalition which works to improve the quality of life is South Los Angeles; California State Senator Gloria Romero, educator, social activist and prison reformer; Eliseo Medina, international executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU); and Marvin Kropke, business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 11. The poster also honors the late Los Angeles labor movement leader, Miguel Contreras of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, with the sign reading “Miguel Contreras ¡Presente!”

About the Artists:
Mark Orozco Justiniani and Joy Mallari are both award-wining Filipino artists whose work has been exhibited internationally. Justiniani first gained critical acclaim when he won the grand prize in the Metrobank National Painting Competition in 1990. Mallari was a finalist in the Osaka Triennale and a top prize winner of the Philip Morris National Art Competition. They received critical recognition from the LA Times for their work with the DejaDesign Gallery in Los Angeles.

Poster(s) of the Week

Primero de Mayo de 1947
[May Day 1947 Only a conscious, united, and honest labor movement can successfully defend the interests of the workers, and help Mexico prosper.]
Pablo O'Higgins; Alberto Beltrán; Taller de Gráfica Popular
Linocut, 1947
Mexico City, Mexico

The celebration of May Day as a labor holiday marked by parades and red flags began on May 1, 1886. Behind the campaign was the universal adoption of the 8-hour working day, an improvement on the recent fight for a ten-hour day. In Chicago, the center of the movement, workers had been agitating for an 8-hour day for months, and on the eve of May 1, 50,000 were already on strike. 30,000 more swelled their ranks the next day, bringing most of Chicago manufacturing to a standstill. In a notorious riot that followed (the Haymarket massacre) the 8-hour movement failed, but the Chicago events figured prominently in the founding congress of the Second International (Paris, 1889) to make May 1, 1890 a demonstration of the solidarity and power of the international working class movement. Ever since, May Day has been celebrated globally as the international workers’ holiday.

May Day 2006
Ami Motevelli
Self-Help Graphics and Art
Silkscreen, 2006
Los Angeles, California

On December 16, 2005, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4437, the Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act by a vote of 239 to 182—92% of Republicans supporting, 82% of Democrats opposing. This bill would not only have made it harder for legal immigrants to become U.S. citizens, but have made it a felony for anyone—including clergy, teachers or healthcare workers, to assist the undocumented in any way. It also called for the construction of a wall across up to 400 miles of the US-Mexico border.

The passage of HR 4437 was the catalyst for some of the largest protest demonstrations in US history, including the March 25, 2006 demonstration in Los Angeles where more than 1 million people took to the streets, and the May 1, 2006 “A Day Without Immigrants” when millions protested in cities across the country, including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. There were school walkouts, street demonstrations, and a one-day boycott of all businesses to demonstrate the buying power of immigrants. The above poster was produced for the Los Angeles march. Following the unprecedented street demonstrations, the Senate passed a much more moderate bill, S. 2611.

In April 2010, the most repressive anti-immigrant legislation in the country was passed in Arizona. Boycotts of the state have started. On May 1, 2010, an immigrant rights march will be held in Washington, D.C.

Poster(s) of the Week

Support the Pittston Strikers!

Carlos Cortez

Linocut, 1989

Chicago, Illinois

In 1989, the United Mine Workers (UMW) in Virginia launched a strike against the Pittston Coal Group, Inc. The ten-month long strike, marred by violence, was ended by the UMW when the contract was ratified in February 1990. The struggle continued to be fought in the courts for several years.

As President Obama tries to convince people that “clean coal” is possible, two coal mining disasters just took place.

· Last week, an explosion in China trapped 153 in a flooded mine. It was announced yesterday (April 7, 2010), that 115 have been pulled out alive.

· At least 29 coal miners died this week in Virginia, in the worst US mining disaster in the last 40 years.

The West Virginia coal mine disaster turns a harsh spotlight on the safety record of the mine's owner, which has paid record fines for safety and environmental violations. Virginia-based Massey Energy Co. has racked up millions of dollars in penalties in recent years. The Montcoal, West Virginia, mine where Monday's fatal explosion took place received 458 citations from federal inspectors in 2009, and more than 50 of those were for problems that the operators knew about but had not corrected, according to federal mine safety records. (source: CNN)

I Pledge Allegiance

Louis “Lou” Dorfsman

Offset, 1970

New York, New York

Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968 and the featured poster commemorates this American tragedy in an ironic and provocative way. It was originally designed as a full-page newspaper ad for CBS’ “Of Black America,” the first network series on black history. The six episodes were broadcast July 2-September 2, 1968. Designed soon after King’s assassination, the mustached model has a strong resemblance to the martyred civil rights activist. Two years later, the image was made into a now iconic poster featuring words of the Pledge of Allegiance. Where the 1968 design evoked King’s assassination, the 1970 version evoked the Viet Nam War, and the disproportionate number of African American soldiers who both served in and died in this war.