An open, and ongoing, call for graphics in response to the U.S. election of Donald Trump the rising tide of xenophobia, racism, and misogyny. People will be in the streets somewhere in this country every day for the foreseeable future. They will need imagery. We will be avoiding images of Trump, and instead we focusing on graphics that support the social movements that existed before him, and will be fighting for us long after he is gone.

Submit:
—11”x17” (1 or 2 color) poster designs
—18”x24” (black and white or full color) poster designs
—Imagery for stickers and buttons

High-res (300dpi) files of designs can be sent to us here: kevin[at]justseeds.org

Our Principles (“the fine print”)

We will not focus on Trump. The more we represent him—no matter in what light—the more we re-inscribe him with power. It is enticing to want to use his image to belittle him, but no matter how successful we are at doing that, ultimately we’re still left with another picture of him. This sets him up as the center of our visual dialog, and makes it even harder to imagine our world without his toxic presence. This is even true—if to a lesser extent—when we play off and reproduce catch phrases and language.

We existed before him, and we are fighting to exist after he is gone. We need to create a graphic front of refusal. Those of us with the skills and resources to design and produce it have a responsibility to do so. We have a responsibility to force into the public consciousness the things we WANT. We will use our art to continue to build existing movements and initiatives—to keep the pressure on to end mass incarceration, stop the pipelines, demand that Black Lives Matter, allow women (and everyone) to control their own bodies, build a powerful Native-led earth protectors movement, and destroy the borders. We have to fight the incoming administration and their agenda, but not at the expense of the power we were already building. We will only stop the machine when our movements get stronger.

Many groups with a lot more resources than us are going to be focusing on reforming the electoral system. This is good and important work, but we want—and need—to focus on building people’s power. When people organize, form increasingly large and powerful groups, and make real demands on the system, it will reform itself. At the very least as an attempt to demobilize our people. Our horizon line has to be true liberation, not fixing a cancerous system. We need to keep our eyes on the real prize, in our lifetimes.

We need imagery of people getting out of prison, not trapped behind bars. We need pictures of women taking control of their bodies and their lives, not bloody coat hangers. We need trans and gender non-conforming people rising up. We need images of immigration detention centers on fire, not images of people being deported. We need representations of poor and working class people of color—and all people—fighting back. We need window signs that say “Immigrants Welcome” and street signs that exclaim that everyone on the block is protected by everyone else, no matter their religion, color, gender, or legal status.

We need refusal and ungovernability. We also need a world worth living in.

This call was initially put out by the Interference Archive Propaganda Party Organizing Committee for the January 14/15, 2017 Inaugurating Resistance Propaganda Party and Distribution Hub.Interference Archive‘s Propaganda parties are opportunities for “dozens of organizations, activists, designers, and artists producing materials around a political issue to hang out, meet each other, and distribute their flyers, stickers, posters, buttons, and more. All propaganda is FREE, and all are encouraged to come by, grab a drink, screen print a shirt, and load up on as many posters and stickers they can carry.”