Anti-Americana: Enemy of Humanity

From 1983, a poster from the Cuban "Anti-Imperialist Tribunal of Our America." Bearing completely still-relevant text, it reads:

WANTED

Charge: Enemy of Humanity

Reward: Peace, Sovereignty, Freedom

In a country where the media narrative routinely suggests down is up and up is down,  it's worth remembering how warped American perspective is. Things look different from outside our borders. U.S. foreign policy isn't quite the gift to world progress it's made out to be.

In compiling the beginnings of a reading list on the Occupy movement, I ran across this brilliant passage:

"The American population, the 1% of the world, is wrapped in a skin filled with memory we must shed. Memory of false historical narratives, of manipulations we knowingly uphold, of dreams about “making it” and of an existence that seems to have stopped evolving. These false memories require our collective insomnia. We are not at the end of history, as some would have us believe. Our current society does not represent the best we can do. There is nothing inherent to human beings that allow some to achieve financial success by their own volition and others to remain stagnant in reaching an acceptable quality of life."

That's by Sandra Mae Nurse, from the article "On Losing Fear and Complacency" in issue 2 of the Occupy Wall Street theoretical journal Tidal, downloadable here.

"Anti-Americana" is a series featuring Anti-American propaganda art here at The Cahokian.

Anti-Americana: Peace President

Since on New Year's Eve he signed the despicable and dangerous NDAA, or National Defense Authorization Act, let's dedicate the first post of 2012 to President Obama, elected three years ago on a largely anti-war, reform platform. With his signing of NDAA — see previous posts here — Obama has in quite a real way significantly eroded the rights of American citizens to due process. He's proved that his definition of "peace" is not particularly cognizant with the one in the dictionary.

This poster is from the Cuban OSPAAAL, the Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America, an organization with a long tradition of brilliant graphic design. While this poster isn't artistically their best, their anti-imperialist message remains sharply on point. President Obama is shown winning the Nobel Peace Prize as a warlike American eagle swoops down from behind. Captioned at the sides are the scenes of the President's "peaceful" actvities: Iraq, Afghanistan, Middle East, Honduras, Terrorism, Yemen, the blockade against Cuba, military bases in Colombia, and Pakistan. The poster pre-dates Libya, probably produced in 2009 or 2010.

I must note that this blog marked the awarding of the Peace Prize to Obama, indeed his very election, with a sense of hope. To my credit I think by the time of his actual prize acceptance speech my critique was developing. At some point this year I'm sure I will sum up my own trajectory and thinking about how all that worked out. I think it's important to take responsibility for positions I have argued in the past, and where necessary, to revisit them with a proper sense of self criticism. Let's just say that Obama has been a tremendous disappointment to those who gave him their support, even those of us who offered that support with a critical eye. This disappointment was also entirely predictable, and looking at what happened in the past four years will be important as this year's election season heats up. The question needs to be answered whether voting defensively for Obama last time around did anybody any good. It certainly didn't help an awful lot of innocent people killed by predator drones on his orders. Stay tuned.

For more examples of Anti-Americana, the regular Cahokian feature on worldwide anti-American propaganda art, click here.

Anti-American Art: Passive-Aggressive Neighbor

"No Al Bloqueo Economico a Cuba!" "No to the Economic Blockade of Cuba!" reads this 1991 poster from Cuba's OSPAAAL. It shows a map of Cuba breaking through the bars of Uncle Sam's top hat.

It's the American argument against Castro's Cuba that makes me furious. "Oh after fifty years of revolution the country is still so poor! Look they have nothing!" Because the real story is that the United States has spent fifty years trying to isolate Cuba into submission. Cuba's pre-revolution economy was intimately connected to the U.S. economy; its agricultural products from sugar to fruit to cigars had a market beginning just across a few miles of water. Tourism, even though it was tainted with organized crime and prostitution, further channelled money back and forth between the island and the U.S. And then Cuba dared to kick out its corrupt politicians and exploitative landowners and dared to break free of the U.S. sphere of influence. This country has never forgiven them; never forgiven its embrace by the Soviet bloc in the cold war.

The economic survival of Cuba, rather than being seen as a condemnation of its socialist government should be held aloft as a miracle of determination in the face of unbelievable odds.

Anti-American Art: When Will You Shut Up and Get Gone?*

1960s or 70s poster from Cuba's OSPAAAL for the Sept. 23 Day of Solidarity with Puerto Rico. Clever photo montage on a Yankee Go Home theme showing symbols of American military might tossed in a wastebasket labelled "Go Home." Until not so long ago, a number of (beautiful!) smaller islands off the coast of Puerto Rico were used as testing grounds by the U.S. military.

Puerto Rico was seized by the United States in the Spanish-American war along with Cuba, the Philippines and Guam. Unlike Cuba, which was made an independent client state of the U.S. right away, and the Philippines, granted independence after the second World War, Puerto Rico and Guam remain in a sort of partially autonomous partially colonial associated netherworld with the U.S. today. Independence movements like the radical and Cuban-allied Puerto Rican Socialist Party, the urban guerrilla movement FALN, and the more mainstream Puerto Rican Independence Party suffered tremendous repression and disruption at the hands of the U.S. government. The PIP continues to exist today, but does not perform well in local elections.

(* extra credit.)

Anti-American Art: No Place to Land

From Cuba's OSPAAAL comes this 1985 poster: "Alto a la Agresion Yanqui A Nicaragua / Stop Yankee Attacks on Nicaragua." A fairly simple graphic treatment, as the predatory American eagle threatens the armed silhouetted people in Sandinista colors. OSPAAAL continues its international solidarity work today.

Yesterday, July 19, was the 31st anniversary of the triumph of the revolution, the FSLN liberation of Managua in 1979.

Anti-American Art: That's No Guantanamera That's a Prison Camp

"No a la Base Naval de Guantanamo / No to the Guantanamo Naval Base" cries this 1971 poster from Cuba's OSPAAAL. That scary big bird is back, this time sinking its talons in the eastern end of the island of Cuba.

It's one of great ironies that the U.S. has a military base and prison camp on the territory of its greatest local adversary, but Guantanamo was "leased" in perpetuity to the United States after the Spanish-American war in 1903. The current socialist government of Cuba wants the land back, not recognizing the sweetheart lease signed by the earlier pro-U.S. client state. President Obama promised to close the prison camp for "terrorists" that the Bush government opened up there, but after being stymied by bipartisan opposition, Obama doesn't talk too much about the prison any more and his failure to make good on that promise. Apparently both republicans and democrats in Congress like having a blatantly extra-legal place to dump foreigners they've accused of terrorism without having to prove anything. As heinous as Guantanamo is, it's certainly only one of a chain of heinous prisons operated by the United States, its military and its intelligence forces including Abu-Ghraib prison in Iraq, Baghram airforce base in Afghanistan, and various CIA "black sites" across the globe where alleged enemies can be held without anybody actually questioning these allegations. While it's not entirely Obama's fault that Guantanamo prison remains open, he didn't even promise to close the rest of these.

Guantanamo, of course, should be returned to the Cuban people. Ailing former leader Fidel Castro has called for its return recently: "Maintaining a military base in Cuba against the will of the people violates the most elemental principles of international law."

Anti-American Art: Another Scary Predator

Here's a straightforward poster from Cuba's OSPAAAL, 1983: An American bald eagle bearing an uncanny resemblance to a military airplane prepares to sink its talons into a teeny Caribbean island. The sole copy is the name of the island, "GRENADA."

The New Jewel Movement led by Maurice Bishop came to power on the small island of Grenada in 1979. The revolutionary forces quickly established fraternal relations with Cuba and the NJM's social transformations were far-reaching. A military coup from within Bishop's government executed Bishop and a number of other NJM leaders in 1983; shortly afterwards US President Ronald Reagan sent US troops in allegedly to protect American students at a local medical school. The primary opposition to the US forces was lead by Cuban construction workers who had been aiding Bishop. After the invasion Grenada was returned to the ranks of Caribbean islands safely in the US orbit.

If you've seen the truly awful Clint Eastwood movie "Heartbreak Ridge," about how one man finds narcissistic redemption by killing some inept and overdressed commies, that was Grenada through Hollywood's eyes. Shameful.

Anti-American Art: The Brink Last Time

"Yankee Imperialism, Out of South Korea" says this 1969 poster from Cuba's OSPAAAL issued to mark the "International Month of Solidarity with the Korean Students and People." Above the headline is a fairly threatening depiction of the North Korean People's Army and the North Korean flag that could be ripped from today's front pages. According to a remarkably information-free press release from Cuba in 2009, Cuba and North Korea brag of "an excellent state of bilateral relations."

Although there's a natural affinity between common enemies of the United States government, many speculate that the ideological replacement of Marxism-Leninism with the "Juche ideal" (self-reliance) in North Korea has fundamentally changed North Korea's ideological sense of self. It's hard not to think that wouldn't effect the spirit of relations with the few remaining nominally Marxist-run states. In "The Cleanest Race" author B.R. Myers argues that North Korean ideology is actually a unique and essentially racist form of nationalism. Fascinating excerpt here.

Anti-American Art: Beware Strangers Bearing Gifts

"He who plunders others always lives in terror" reads the Palestinian proverb atop this complicated poster from Cuba's OSPAAAL. Modelled using toys, it refers to the cozy US-Israel relationship by depicting a Trojan horse bearing American colors having apparenty delivered a belly full of Israeli soldiers. It dates from the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and is a call to solidarity with the Lebanese people and the Palestinian refugees targeted by the American-backed Israeli forces. The Israelis were successful in forcing the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) out of Lebanon, though of course hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain there.

Anti-American Art: Stovepipe Hat, Lightnin' Why Don't Ya Hear Me Cryin'

A 1980 poster from Cuba's OSPAAAL entitled "World Solidarity with the Cuban Revolution." It shows a lightning bolt zapping through Uncle Sam's head, and a large Cuban flag.

According to wikipedia, Uncle Sam dates back to the War of 1812, and this most classic visual imagination of him dates to a World War 1 recruiting poster from 1917.

Anti-American Art: Power to the People

This 1971 poster from Cuba's OSPAAAL marks the muder of Black Panther Party activist George Jackson in San Quentin prison. The blood from the fallen hero forms the pattern of an American flag.

“To the slave, revolution is an imperative, a love-inspired, conscious act of desperation. It’s aggressive. It isn’t `cool’ or cautious. It’s bold, audacious, violent, an expression of icy, disdainful hatred!” from George Jackson's "Blood in My Eye" quoted here.

Anti-American Art: Scary Big Bird

Here's a Cuban OSPAAAL poster dating from the 1989 American attack on Panama ordered by George Bush I to depose its president Manuel Noriega, arrogantly and self-servingly entitled "Operation Just Cause." "Panama: To Resist Is To Win." Noriega was a vaguely nationalist left-talking corrupt puppet of the US who got out of hand; Panama of course is the northern part of Colombia the US chopped off a hundred years ago to provide a more pliant local partner for its canal building and land grabbing. Corrupt Noriega or no, it's not hard to understand how offensive the American power grab was and why Cuba would have urged Panamanian resistance. Wikipedia has a discussion of the Panamanian casualties, estimates varying between a couple hundred and a few thousand.

Anti-American Art: Nice Try, CIA

This Cuban poster is from a 1970s anniversary celebration of the Cuban victory at Playa Giron, what the United States media calls the Bay of Pigs Invasion, where Cuban exiles recruited, funded and armed by JFK attempting a military invasion of newly liberated Cuba in 1961 were soundly thrashed. The poster makes clear what everybody really knew, that Giron was not a defeat of random anti-Castro forces, but a defeat of the US attempt to spike the Cuban revolution. Afterwards Che Guevara sent a note to President Kennedy: "Thanks for Playa Girón. Before the invasion, the revolution was weak. Now it's stronger than ever."

Anti-American Art: The Mercenary

Here's a poster from Cuba's OSPAAAL, the Organization for the Solidarity of the Peoples of African, Asia and Latin America, that is remembered mostly for its impressive monthly posters designed by the world's leading revolutionary graphic designers. In this one, entitled "The Mercenary" a smoking, soul-less war machine of an American GI is shown, by a cutaway on his helmet, to be driven and controlled by a balding nebbish in a business suit: the fearsome US war machinery controlled by corporate interests. I'm guessing this one dates from the early 1970s.

Surprisingly socialist Cuba and the United States have never come to direct blows, though the 1980s wars in Grenada, Nicaragua, and especially Angola became essentially proxy conflicts between the American superpower and its tiny rebellious neighbor.

propaganda

so I'm fascinated by anti-American propaganda. maybe it's just my mood. here's an OSPAAAL poster I just bought. this poster is gently suggesting U.S. troops leave South Korea "immediately". North Korean stamps also have some amazing propaganda images. I'll post some of those later.