FILE#1: Anarchist/Situationist Visuals

Whether you support or not, anarchist underground is, indeed, a vivid spectacle. Claiming internet as a free environment for their political activism, these communities offer substantial material to "speak upon." In this regard, our first file will be concentrated upon this material. However, it is a very large field to cover; the file will stay open.

1. Political Grafitti

The site does not contain too many colorful visuals but hosts a good number of links, especially related to situationist/anarchist visual material, ranging from documentary photos on Spanish Revolution to hacking.

2. Out on the Street Posters

A Poster Collection dating from Jan 1991 up to-day including anti-Bush, anti-Clinton and anti-Bush-Jr. propaganda. Downloadable, and better yet, printable. Filetypes include jpg's, eps's (Adobe Illustrator) and pdf's (Adobe Acrobat).



Best part of the archive, I believe, is those posters and leaflets for the Washington DC Anti-Imperialist Action.

3. Stencil Revolution

Graffiti and stencil archive, together with a "how to make stencils" guide. Content is -most of the time- rather apolitical compared to the other links above.



Guerilla Parenting is one of those links. It is a great link for a number of political copyright-free downloadable stencils in .eps format. It says:

"Do your children RESPECT the hours of hard work that you invest in them? No! Children EXPLOIT THEIR PARENTS in much the same way that MCDONALDS CORPORATION exploits the poor and weak people of Canada's rainforests. It's time to TAKE MATTERS INTO YOUR OWN HANDS and force the LITTLE BASTARDS to behave properly. The time for calm exhortations and promises of extra cartoon time is over. Use our stencils to decorate your neighborhood with messages that will MAKE your kids BEHAVE and STOP treating the place like a GODDAMNED AMUSEMENT PARK."

4. Nothingness.org

A dedicated situationist portal and library, including very interesting picture-books on many subjects. Photo gallery from the Spanish Revolution -or rather; the Civil War as the authorities state- of 1936 is a very good one of these. The background goes like this:

"On the 19th of July 1936, revolution broke out in Spain. Workers took up weapons and went into the streets and defeated the military and the Guardia Civil in many places. The military had revolted the day before in an attempt to overthrow the young republic. The people who had been oppressed for centuries finally took things into their own hands and they wanted everything to change.

The land, the factories, the streets, everything for everyone. The churches were plundered, their contents burnt, the valuables taken to the committees and distributed, buildings and cars were seized and immediately covered with CNT and FAI (the anarchist trade-unions), the judges thrown out, newspapers taken over, posters put up to inform the ordinary people (many of whom were illiterate), factories and property distributed and prisoners freed. It was an enormous outburst of enthusiasm with one main idea: breaking with the past. No churches, bosses, military and guardias, but peasants and workers who were in control of their own lives."



I recommend the photos of cars modified into tanks; it brings up the question how far modification by the user of the product can go: both in terms of the original designer's intention/storyboard regarding the use of the car and also in terms of the political nature of the user's modifications on the original product. We are already familiar with the car-modification industry and Harley Davidson customizable vehicles.

But, wow, tanks are a different matter!