Activism
ECO-ORGANIZING
Climate Activism
Joshua Kahn Russell
COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
Border Fight
John Gibler
Commentary
FROM THE WEB
Net Briefs 05-09
Various Contributors
THE COURT
Subprime Court
Rob Larson
MELTDOWN
TMI at 30
John m. Laforge
ELECTION RESULTS
El Salvador's Victory
Sofia Jarrin-thomas
SURVEILLANCE
Spies & Informers
Julia a. Shearson
EYES RIGHT
Von Mises Rises
Chip Berlet
CONSERVATIVE WATCH
God, Guns, & Blood
Bill Berkowitz
GAY & LESBIAN COMMUNITY NOTES
"Showgirls"
Michael Bronski
Culture
ACTIVIST ART
Signs of Change
Savannah Schroll guz
DOCUMENTARY
Trumbo
Ben Terrall
BOOK REVIEW
The Black Vote
Roger Bybee
Features
FOG WATCH
Shoot-Downs
Edward Herman
IMPERIAL POLITICS
Obama's Violin
Paul Street
REVISITING
Gaza Aftermath
Herbert P. Bix
HISTORY HANDBOOK
Caroline Rooting
Nicolas J.S. Davies
Zaps
FREE LISTINGS
Zaps 05-09
Various Contributors
NOTE: Z Magazine subscribers and sustainers have access to all Z Magazine articles here and in the archive. The latest Z Magazine articles available to everyone are listed in the Free Articles box at the top of the table of contents, and are starred in the list below. Questions? e-mail Z Magazine Online.
Signs of Change
Social Movement Cultures 1960-Now
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German-born satirist George Grosz attacked the socially detached avant-garde with the 1925 essay "Art is in Danger": "...come out of your seclusion, let the ideas of the working people take hold of you and help them fight this rotten society." The traveling exhibition Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960 to Now reveals how the socially progressive 1960s spurred this desired alliance between artists and activists, allowing the raw emotions and elevated ideals of social revolution to find more concentrated graphic expression. Curators Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee, themselves artist-activists, present a stunning half-century panorama of revolutionary ephemera and video documentation.
Greenwald and MacPhee incorporate social movements from 42 countries, including Burma, Iran, and South Korea. Beginning with "Free Richard Mohawk and Paul Skyhorse" posters from the American Indian Movement (AIM), the show continues with evidence of historical uprisings little known in the United States. Witness South Korean artist Hong Sung Dam's revelatory woodcuts from the 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement, during which the South Korean military killed 2,000 unarmed civilians.
A segment is devoted to the 1987 artwork of non-partisan ACT UP, a group dedicated to arresting the AIDS epidemic. Another segment features the promotion of environmental consciousness in Britain. The exhibit ends with graphics opposing globalization and gentrification, each intended for urban posting and distribution.
Many works bear a clearly adversarial tenor, while others are velvet-fisted. Take, for example, the anonymously hand-quilted Chilean arpillera, "Por la Libre Expresion." Sewn by female prisoners of Pinochet's regime, arpilleras were colorful textile images bearing hidden messages for outside helpers that easily slid past even the wariest prison guard.
Inevitably, with such a broad scope and circumscribed space, there are omissions: for instance, the masked feminist art collective Guerilla Girls is absent. However, the overall thrust of the exhibition is both scholarly and arresting. A cacophony of silk-screened posters, vertical banners, and flickering video screens—all in multiple languages—reveal the power of unified action. It is also compelling history, some parts of which are unfamiliar while others are in danger of receding from collective consciousness.
By its conclusion, the show alludes to, but does not directly present, the unifying power of digital culture, from which a new era of activism is budding. In this sense, Signs of Change is also an historical bookmark, a record of the foreseeable change in message medium: there will be words and images, but perhaps fewer tangible examples.
Z Magazine Archive
Announcements
Events from Zaps
OCCUPY TOGETHER - Occupy Together is the unofficial hub for the various occupations springing up across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. Over 1,000 cities and towns are currently participating.
Contact: http://www.occupytogether.org/.
LEONARD PELTIER - February 4 is the International Day of Solidarity with Leonard Peltier. The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee calls on supporters worldwide to protest against the injustice suffered by the Indigenous activist.
Contact: http://www.whois leonardpeltier.info/index1.htm.
EVOLUTION - February 10-12 will be the sixth annual celebration of Evolution Weekend, intended to demonstrate that religious people from many faiths and locations understand that evolution is sound science and poses no problems for their faith (affiliated with the Clergy Letters Project repudiating anti-science fundamentalism).
Contact: http://theclergyletter project.org/.
AFRICA - The Priority Africa Network will host the Second Annual Ubuntu Awards’ Dinner, February 11, in
Contact: http://www.priority africa.org/.
FOOD - Registration is open for the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association’s (OEFFA) 33rd annual conference, Sowing the Seeds of Our Food Sovereignty, February 18-19, in
Contact: http://www.oeffa. org/.
JUSTICE - The Justice Conference 2012 will be held February 24-25 in
Contact: http://thejusticecon- ference.com/.
SHUT DOWN - Occupy Portland has called for a Shut Down Corporations Day on February 29—a day of non-violent civil disobedience targeting corporations who are members of ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council), one of the most successful mechanisms that the 1% uses to control legislation.
Contact: http://occupyport- land.org/.
ISRAEL/PALESTINE - Israeli Apartheid Week is an annual international series of events held in cities and campuses across the globe. The aim is to educate people about the nature of
Contact: http://apartheidweek. org/en.
WOMEN/AFGHANISTAN - Global Exchange Reality Tours and Afghans4Tomo- row have prepared a program to begin March 1, called
Contact: http://www.globalexchange.org/tours; http://www. afghans4tomorrow.org/.
WOMEN’S STRIKE - March 8 is International Women’s Day and events are planned worldwide. Global Women’s Strike also organizes protest, education, and direct action around this day to redress the ongoing oppression of women who do two-thirds of all the world’s work— most of it without pay or formal benefits and often in slave conditions.
Contact: http://www.global womenstrike.net/; http://www. internationalwomens day.com/about.asp.
OCCUPY/CAPITALISM - The 2012 Left Forum is scheduled for March 16-18 at
Contact: 212-817-2003; panels@leftforum.org; http:// www.leftforum.org.
FOOD NOT BOMBS - Food Not Bombs is currently organizing several projects in communities, including: free food distribution to local people in need; literature tables to provide information about food, peace and justice; hot meals at demonstrations and events; and creative actions in protest of war and poverty. The group invites all to join.
Contact: Food Not Bombs,
LABOR/COMMUNITY - The
Contact: info@thestrategy center.org; http://www.thestrategy center.org/.
PROCESS - No Labels is currently accepting new stakeholders. The group aims to build a network of supporters in every congressional district at the grassroots level.
Contact: backoffice@nolabels. org; http://nolabels.org/front.
PEACE/DEMOCRACY - The Campaign for Peace and Democracy is currently fundraising. The organization does not receive any foundation or government grants.
Contact: cpd@igc.org; http:// www.cpdweb.org/.
MEDIA - Toward Freedom is currently fundraising. The organization organizes public events aimed at raising awareness of and discussions about global issues.
Contact: admin@towardfreedom.com; http://towardfreedom.com/.
PEACE & JUSTICE - S!PAZ is currently fundraising. The group seeks to promote actions that contribute to the process of a non-violent transformation related to the ongoing armed conflict in
Contact: http://razapressasso- ciation.org/.
MEDIA/RAZA - The Raza Press and Media Association (RPMA) has issued its 2012 New Year Messages of Resistance, and is currently seeking new members. The group holds the position that Raza are colonized, indigenous people and that the
Contact: chiapas@sipaz.org; http://www.sipaz.org/fini_eng.htm.
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