This print is a part of the Dissenters’ portfolio and booklet, DE-MIL-I-TA-RISE.
Dissenters is a movement organization leading a new generation of young people to reclaim resources from the war industry, reinvest in life-giving institutions, and repair collaborative relationships with the earth and people around the world. They are building local teams of young people across the country to force institutions to divest from war and militarism, and reinvest in what our communities actually need. From campuses to congress, they are building grassroots power to cut off war elites once and for all.
In an effort to lift up this important work, Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative organized the DE-MIL-I-TA-RISE portfolio and booklet for use in Dissenters organizing campaigns, popular education projects, and cultural programming.
This design was inspired by a Third World Liberation Front button from 1968. That button had a fist on it originally designed by Frank Cieciorka in 1965.
Frank Cieciorka, Fist, 1965
Hughes adapted Cieciorka’s fist and redesigned it as if it was emerging from a great flood to highlight the importance of self-determination and liberation movements in the wake of the rising waters of the climate crisis. The intention was to inverse the idea of the flood waters into a flood of resistance and visually represent the Dissenters language about the “turning tides” and “rising up” together against militarism.
A fist rises out of the crashing waves in this blue and black image. The words “SELF-DETERMINATION” are placed in a curve above the fist.
