Poster of the Week

33% of The Homeless Are Veterans
San Francisco Print Collective
The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee
Silkscreen, 2006
San Francisco, California

November 11th is Veterans' Day, when too many politicians give lip service to Veterans, while the statistics reveal a reality of obscene neglect. In 2009, the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans estimated that between 130,000 and 200,000 veterans are homeless on any given night.

America's homeless veterans have served in World War II, Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), Operation Iraqi Freedom, or the military's anti-drug cultivation efforts in South America. 47 per cent of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam Era. More than 67 per cent served our country for at least three years and 33 per cent were stationed in a war zone.

As this poster asks: Why do our taxes support war but not the people who fight it?  When will we ever learn?

For More Information:

http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/veterans.html

Poster of the Week

N.E.W.S.
Lex Drewinski
Silkscreen, 1990
Berlin, Germany

The Berlin Wall--which had divided East and West Berlin for nearly 30 years--fell on November 9, 1989, 25 years ago this weekend. The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) began construction of the fortified barrier in 1961 to prevent East German citizens from defecting.   

There are many dramatic photos of West Germans pulling parts of the wall down with hammers and machinery, but the wall's actual demolition by the East German military didn't begin until June 13, 1990 and was not completed until 1992. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990.

As the world commemorates the destruction of one wall, other walls continue to be erected: The Separation Wall (also known as the Apartheid Wall) being built by Israel in the Occupied West Bank, and the border wall being erected between the U.S. and Mexico. When will we ever learn. 

CSPG's Poster of the Week by Lex Drewinski plays on both the headline N.E.W.S. made when the Wall fell, and the East-West divide.  It shows how after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, there was no longer an "East" as the majority of people living in East Germany wanted the freedom and lifestyles symbolized  by the West.

Poster of the Week

Nightmare on Bush Street
Paid for by:  Clinton·Gore '92
Offset, 1992
Little Rock, Arkansas

On Halloween eve, an even scarier date approaches - election day November 4.

This is one of the most imaginative U.S. campaign poster in the collection--and it really was paid for by the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign.  All the text is below.  Please note how too many of the 22 year old slogans listed here haven't changed at all.  Others are surprising.

If you thought the original was scary...  Nightmare On Bush Street  Part 2
Four More Years
Leaving theaters November 3
Trickle  Down  Terror!
The Trickle Down Terror Of  Voodoo Economics:
·         See 35,000 Private Sector Jobs Fall  Victim To Bush's Recession!
·         Watch In Horror As Middle-Class  Incomes Plummet $1,600!
·         Duck Under Your Seat As The Debt  Explodes To $4 Trillion!
·         Experience The Worst Growth In  Fifty Years!

Blood-  Curdling!  Bush's Bloodcurdling Broken Promises:
·         Read His Lips As Bush Signs The Second  Largest Tax Increase In History!
·         Gasp As The Environmental President  Guts The Clean Air Act!
·         Shudder As Dr. Bush Pulls The Plug On  Health Care Reform!
·         Tremble As The Education President  Decapitates Head Start, Slashes Federal  Education Funds, And Stalks Student Aid!

From The Producers Of "The Recession That Ate My Job"
Starring George Bush As The Man With  A Thousand Faces
Also  Starring Truth as the First Victim · Nightmare On Bush Street - Part 2 
Executive Producer Ronald Reagan
Produced  By James Baker
Directed  By James Baker
Screenplay  By James Baker
Based On A Story By Herbert Hoover 
Best  Boy Dan Quayl [sic.]
Gaffer Marlin Fitzwater
Filmed In Lack-O-Vision
Edited  By the Far Right
Travel  Arrangements By John Sununu
Stunts  Coordinated By Richard Darman
Original Music By Pat Robertson and The Extremists 
D Rated D for Dismal and Disappointing  May Not Be Suitable For The Weak Pocketbook 

Any similarity to real leadership is purely coincidental. [union bug]®

Same Old Line Cinema 
·         Iran-Contra  Iraq-Gate  State  Gate  Cable  Television Bill  RIP  10/3/92  Resurrected  10/5/92
·         Emergency  Unemployment  Compensation  RIP  10/11/91
·         Family and  Medical Leave  RIP  9/22/92  Graveyard  Vetos [sic.]
·         Motor Voter  Bill  RIP  7/2/92
·         Civil Rights  Bill  RIP  10/22/90
·         Middle Class  Tax Cut  RIP  3/20/92

Paid for by Clinton-Gore '92