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Radical Prints Up Close and In-Depth

Click the Print to Go Closer

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Berkeley # 219 Title: First Only And Ever Annual June Grass Peace Festival Description: 38 x 56 cm ; green and blue on white computer paper Image: no image Condition: wrinkled

Many posters produced in the May 1970 Workshop are basically utilitarian; aesthetic components are given little or no emphasis, and the goal is to communicate important information about local events or activities.

These posters are no less interesting in their own way. Local and general historians will find them valuable resources in reconstructing the grassroots activities that occurred during this period; for the same reason, these posters offer valuable insight into the specific ways that local activists were organizing and fundraising for anti-war activities.

In a way that is more intangible — although in my estimation, no less important — these types of posters are perhaps our best chance of achieving some kind of personal connection with the people and places signified by the paper and ink. Historical analysis can reconstitute facts with some success, but much can be lost by the broad-brush approach that even the most detailed historians must often use.

The 'New Left' (as a “movement of movements”¹) was inherently fragmented and polyvocal. But even this theoretical recognition can obscure the fragile human element of the protests that took place in May, 1970. The communal nature of the protest and the artwork produced by these movements tends to aid in concealing the individual stories of those involved, and the extent to which those stories might differ from each other. And yet, the broad-based political agitation against the war was comprised mainly not of 'hardcore' extremists but of 'average' students. For these people, protesting the war seemed a spontaneous moral imperative, brought on by a nightmarish war that seemed only to be expanding and by the killing of American students on American soil by American troops.

The histories of movements, the histories of leaders, and the histories of big events largely miss the stories of people such as these. Except by chance or good fortune, the average protestor plays merely a supporting role in the larger drama of anti-war activism, becoming part of a statistic that so-many marched on this day, and so many on another. From a bird's-eye view, these personal stories could rightly be dismissed as irrelevant to the larger story of the movement — and yet without them, it is more difficult to understand these individuals as human beings, rather than actors in a historical drama now long past. Prints such as these are one way of bridging that divide.

These posters have and tell a history of their own. These histories are limited, personal, one-sided, even peripheral; therein lies their strength. They provide access to the ephemeral atmosphere of a time, like the aroma escaping from a box in some attic, forgotten for 30 years.

For example, on the back of this poster advertising the Grass Peace Festival, we find a hastily scrawled advertisement for a Volkswagen:

	6/7/70 / 59 VW / Sunroof / Runs very fine / Body fair / Good tires / $250 / 621-4524
Berkeley 219 - Verso	Close-up Enhancement of the Ad

It is trivia such as this that may never appear in the history books (some may say for good reason). And yet, it was these details that gave me pause as I leafed through the collection. The lens of historical scrutiny momentarily vanished, and I was then face to face with a used car.

Is this irrelevant? One could argue that. But, when approaching a movement that resisted hegemony and rigid classification, and that strived for independence and diversity, it is oddly appropriate that the ephemera on the back of a poster should spark a moment of insight.

Below are more examples of similar tidbits — casual scribbles invoking the humanity behind the history.

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	59 VW / Sunroom / Runs fine / $265 / 521-4524
Berkeley 154	Berkeley 154 - Writing Enhanced An ad for the same Volkswagen. Note the higher price in this ad!

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.	Mcgee / come back / to your home
Berkeley 131	Berkeley 131 - Writing Enhanced

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.	McGee / come on / back
Berkeley 236	Berkeley 236 - Writing Enhanced The handwriting on this poster appears different than on #131 above; more than one person was searching for McGee.

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. .	Charles, / if you / can hear / me / then get / your / a-- / home
Berkeley 235	Berkeley 235 - Writing Enhanced