Description
POWER TO THE PEOPLE is a poster John August Swanson published in 2008, drawing together ideas from early artworks, drawings, and paintings created between 1969 to 1974. The central structure of the posters comes from the Unemployed Man (Serigraph, 1973)
Swanson’s personal experience in looking for work informed the artwork, as did his mother’s–an immigrant from Mexico, who was a garment worker and joined the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) in the early 1930s. Swanson’s life-long dedication to peace, labor, and civil rights groups can also be seen, as the people unite and work together.
This twenty four by thirty six inch poster is printed with fade resistant inks, and is coated with a protective “Aqueous” coating, to guard against dirt, smudges, fingerprints, and scratch marks. Responsible in its own message, it has been printed using Union Labor, and bears the Southern California Union Label in the lower right hand corner. Conscious of the state of our environment, this poster has also been printed on “Endeavour” 80 lb gloss cover stock paper. “Endeavour” is a “Mixed Sources Product” from well-managed forests, controlled sources, and features a high recycled content (50% total).
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In the first panel – At the left side of my serigraph, there is an employment agency with a long line of people waiting to sign on a waiting list. Our “Unemployed Man” is seen at the moment he writes down his name. He continues into the next panel, where he walks down the street, feeling alone and powerless, as he passes factories and office buildings with “No Jobs” signs posted.
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In the second panel – He is standing outside an overcrowded hotel where he has just picked up a newspaper which announces a march, a gathering of many people, of many communities coming together to address their common problems. |
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In the third panel – He is the foreground figure in a huge gathering of people who have come together to call for quality universal healthcare, better schools, affordable housing, living wages, equal pay and job training. Many of their signs promote strength in unity, community organizing, and peace. This large group of people is positioned so that they march toward the viewer as if they are moving forward out of the picture. |
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Across the top – The line of smaller scenes picture people engaged in the rebuilding and renewing of their community. We see the renovation and construction of housing; the development of common, community spaces in parks; the writing of letters and expressing of ideas; and the sharing of resources in soup lines for the hungry, homeless, and unemployed.
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Across the bottom – There are three scenes picturing people organizing for their empowerment. The first is a group involved in collective bargaining. The next is another group of people discussing the possibilities for working together. The final scene is a leadership training class in which they seek to learn how to combine their energies to solve common problems.
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It is my hope that this art work might serve as an inspiration and a tool for those working to organize those who have been displaced & marginalized by economic injustice into compassionate communities empowered to implement justice and bring peace.
Also available as a Giclee fine art print
