The T-shirt, the poster, the billboard. Traditionally the weapons of protest and of solidarity are remarkable for their ability to cross oceans with similar messages, as displayed in an exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.
Sponsored by the British Council, the ”Upfront and personal – three decades of political graphics” exhibition comes on the back of an upsurge in the anti-war movement across the globe and was spurred on by the US-led war on Iraq.
It features the items of popular culture that activists and organisations in South Africa and Britain use to build support and solidarity and to get their message across without the benefit of corporate public relations budgets.
Two such weapons, developed in different countries, bear a striking resemblance to each other and also reveal the changing nature of relations between civil society in the two countries.
Under apartheid, the relationship was one of solidarity against apartheid — the show features a large selection of posters and T-shirts used to deepen the boycott of South African products like fruit and wine.
Now the two civil societies are united in their opposition both to the war in Iraq but also against a new age of empire by the United States.
In South Africa, a simple white T-shirt emblazoned with the words ”No to war” with a red hand daubed alongside was a common sight used in the marches that rocked the country when US president George Bush went to war earlier this year. In Britain, activists wore exactly the same T-Shirt in the march on Trafalgar Square in London that brought out 1,3-million pacifists in the biggest demonstration since the Second World War.
Protest is being globalised and consciousness too. One set of anti-war posters can be downloaded off the internet for use in protests across the world. More recently, growing resistance to the global economy and the power that multinational corporations wield over people’s lives has led to a burgeoning anti-globalisation movement.
A tool of the trade of this movement is what is called ”subvertising” — the subversion of multinational brands. One set of posters at the exhibition is dedicated to the trial by McDonalds of two activists they took to court in the famous ”Mclibel” trial. Their supporters used the golden arches and clown which symbolise the global burger chain to make anti-McDonalds propaganda. In another poster, Bush featured in a campaign against the petroleum company, Esso.
The presidential eyes were replaced by dollar signs with a petrol pump filling his ears, it says: ”Tanked up on Esso”.
In South Africa, the T-shirt production company ‘Laugh-it-off’ makes its money from subvertising and also faces a libel/defamation suit. Parodying the beer brand, Carling Black Label, the company has replaced the words with Black Labour; White Guilt.
South African Breweries took ‘Laugh-it-off’ to court for brand subversion in a trial that continues and is igniting the fires of free speech advocates. The T-shirt is also featured at the exhibition, as is a British example that uses the Coca-Cola brand for its ammunition. Around the red Coke sign, where the words ‘Add Life’ would usually go, the designers have replaced it with ”Destroy Capitalism”.
”This exhibition shows how freedom is constantly probed and pushed to the limits by artists, designers and activists alike,” says the curator’s message.
A second major theme of the British aspect of the exhibition is political postering, where visitors are taken through a range of election posters. William Hague, the former Tory leader, is lampooned as Maggie Thatcher, the fiery 1980s British prime minister.
An Economist magazine cover some years later paintbrushed the present prime minister Tony Blair as Thatcher hinting both at New Labour’s move to the political centre and at the fact that Blair benefited from her policies.
South Africa’s political posters are different: they span the past ten years of freedom and are interesting in what they reveal. The early posters are celebratory works to launch the new constitution and the parliament. The later posters from the past two years are taking on the satirical, in-your-face feel of the British posters, mirroring a civil society that is growing more robust in its independence from government.
One from the campaign to force government to improve its Aids treatment policy shows a proud and confident pregnant woman holding up a copy of South Africa’s constitution — a symbol of the court case the Treatment Action Campaign fought (and won) to force government to provide life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs to pregnant women and babies.
Another poster features a man contorting himself into a ball. It asks the question: ”Is this your future as a flexible worker?” and draws attention to a line in government’s major economic policy plan which promised investors a more ”flexible” labour force. – IPS