I recently found a great political sticker about capitalism and the economy that looks very much like an I.W.W. stickerette due to its size, medium, and message. It states “Forward to Recovery – Increased Activity – Price Rise – Employment.” We see “Business” dressed as a fat cat in a fancy suit and pinstripe pants racing forward while being dragged down by the heavy anchor of “Low Wages.” The artist’s name is difficult to decipher; the signature looks like “Terry Costello,” but I can’t find anything similar online or in any of my I.W.W.-related books and articles. The reason I…
Two stickers in my collection focus on Nelson Mandela and anti-apartheid in South Africa. The first states “Stop Apartheid, Boycott Shell – Owen Bieber, UAW President and National CAP Chairman,” and the date 1985 is penciled on the back. Owen Bieber was then President of the American United Auto Workers Union and a strong Mandela supporter. In 1984, Bieber was even arrested in an anti-apartheid demonstration in DC. An article entitled “Campaign to Boycott Shell” in the United States Anti-Apartheid Newsletter (Vol. 1, No. 3, Spring 1986) describes Bieber’s role in the campaign and the call for “Shell and other…
I recently came across a U.S. political sticker from Iowa in 1926 that is one of the first of its kind, from what I’ve seen, that isn’t an I.W.W. Wobbly labor union stickerette (see previous posts on I.W.W. stickerettes). What’s interesting, however, is how Ralph Chaplin, a 1910s-era I.W.W. key artist/agitator, talked about printed labels on various fruit and vegetable cartons that helped inspire him to create political stickers. I’ll dig up those references for a later post.
Three new Industrial Workers of the World “stickerettes” for the Street Art Graphics digital archive! For more on “stickerettes,” see my previous posts: I.W.W. “stickerettes” “Stickerettes at NYU’s Tamiment Library More on I.W.W. “stickerettes” “Stickerette” ad in 1917 I.W.W. Solidarity newspaper Two new “stickerettes”
On the home front, Viggo, up close and personal (RIP, 2020).