"It is time we all faced the truth of the hardships ahead of us. It is time to investigate the one form of genocide which threatens us all. It is the environmental and human destruction that American industrial greed is bring not only to Indian Nations, but to the other nations of the world." -Leonard Peltier
In 1977 we formed a silk screen collective in Milwaukee, WI, that produced art ending in late 1978 or early 1979. Posters created in France during the May-June 1968 strikes influenced our thinking and planning. Silk screening is a very basic production method—easily reproducible and inexpensive. We wanted to create art that was accessible, inspirational and free—that is “Art for the People.” We designed and made posters of varying degrees of quality—improving over time—but all clear, visible, and uncompromising. Press runs were around 100 posters per design. We wheatpasted the posters across the city late at night —hoping to fulfill the “agitate” part of “agitate, educate and organize”. The skilled amongst us built the frames, screens, and drying racks. Paper was the largest expense, and we used a creatively obtained roll of newsprint for the posters. We worked at various houses where one or the other of us lived if there was space and roommates didn’t object. In 1979 or 1980 a donation of the Collective’s posters was made to the Taminent Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at NYU, New York City. The world of justice, peace, freedom and equality we hoped to see in our lifetimes remains to be won. And there will always be a place for art in that struggle.