Political Posters

The “All Of Us Or None” (AOUON) archive project was started by Free Speech Movement activist Michael Rossman in 1977 to gather and document posters of modern progressive movements in the United States. Though some early works are included, its focus is on the domestic political poster renaissance that began in 1965 and continues to this day. When Rossman died May 12, 2008 his family donated the collection to the Oakland Museum of California. More …

The Archive gathered posters from all streams of progressive activity — from movements of protest, liberation, and affirmative action, trade union and community struggles, to electoral and environmental organizing, community services, and visionary manifestos. It is strongest in work from the San Francisco Bay Area, but its scope is national: approximately one-quarter of its holdings come from out of state, primarily New York City, Boston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. These are complemented by a representation of international work. The collection consists of approximately 24,500 distinct titles.

The collection includes examples from well-known graphic artists including Malaquías Montoya, Emory Douglas, Rachael Romero, Rupert Garcia, Yolanda Lopez, Favianna Rodriguez, Carlos Cortez, Nancy Hom, Juan Fuentes, and Jos Sances, as well as material from seminal collective workshops such as La Raza Silkscreen, the Royal Chicano Air Force, Japantown Art and Media, Kearny Street Workshop, and Inkworks Press. Perhaps more important, the depth and breadth of the collection reveals the contribution of numerous lesser known or even anonymous artists whose cumulative impact on this democratic public art form has yet to be properly understood.

The cataloging of the AOUON Archive was made possible by a generous grant from the Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation.

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Lucia Gonzalez de Parsons Carlos Cortez 1980 Poster with illustration of Lucia Gonzalez de Parsons in woodcut style, white lines on purple background. Text in white in Spanish. Parsons is holding a pamphlet for the Industrial Workers of...	Mammoth Rally Late 20th Early 21st Century Poster advertising Gerald L. K. Smith as a speaker for the Christian Nationalist Crusade at an event in Los Angeles. Poster is white with a black, white, and red horizontal bands across top. Below...
Forward to Chicago 1978 Poster for the Revolutionary Young League and a conference in Chicago. Poster has an illustration with young people wearing RYL berets breaking the chains of no jobs, bad education, drugs, police...	Chairman Mao Tse-tung Late 20th Early 21st Century Poster with a black and white photograph of Mao Tse-Tung wearing military outfit and clapping his hands. Wide white border, and text at bottom center in border.
Fed Up? Vote Communist! Circa 1968 Campaign poster for Charlene Mitchell and Mike Zagarell for office for the Communist Party. Poster has a black and white photo of the candidate with green block text at to pand bottom.	We Must Have Order Late 20th Early 21st Century Poster with a pyramid shaped illustration with weathy people and luxuries at top and dying workers/third world at base. Text at bottom in black talks about supporting the revolutionary freedom...
Bay Area Socialist School Late 20th Early 21st Century Poster with a map of the San Francisco Bay area. Over the center is a sun shape with yellow rays and a photograph in center in purple with a crowd of people. Text is in purple. Verso is the same...	Vote Agnos! Late 20th Early 21st Century Campaign poster for Art Agnos for Mayor of San Francisco. Poster is red with white text, a white start at center, and two horizontal blue stripes across the center.
Class consciousness is knowing which side of the fence you're on. Press Gang Publishers, publisher 1978 Poster with a grainy photo of a woman leaning on a wooden fence. Text above and below reads: "Class consciousness is knowing which side of the fence you''re on. Class analysis is figuring out who...	Mary King Allied Printing, printer Late 20th Early 21st Century Poster to elect Mary King for the office of mayor. (City not specificied.) Poster has a border with red, teal, and white dashes. Bottom of poster has a red silhoutte of a skyline with teal sky...
Celebrate the 5th Anniversary of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement! Late 20th Early 21st Century Poster with blue and red illustrations of Karl Marx, Mikhail Bakunin (?), Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, and Mao Tsetung with a globe behind their heads. Text in yellow below in English and...	Art Agnos for Mayor Late 20th Early 21st Century Political poster for candidate Art Agnos running for mayor. Poster has white text on dark blue background, with two red stripes on either side of "for"
Theses on the Commune Late 20th Early 21st Century Poster with black text on white paper with 13 theses on the commune listed in three columns. The first column has a map, the scond a photo of Stalin Square in Budapest with the head of a Stalin...	Eugene V. Debs Late 20th Early 21st Century Poster with black and white photograph of Eugene V. Debs, clapping his hands with mouth wide open. Text above in blue is a quotation about the master class versus the subject class. Below in blue...
Mao Tsetung Memorial Circa 1979 Poster advertising the Mao Tsetung Memorial with a black and white photo of Mao at bottom left, and yellow and red wavy bands of color across poster. Text at right describes Mao as a great...	[Hand holding red book] Poster on newsprint with black and white photograph of an arm in a crowd with a colorized red book in hand. Verso is a spread from Good Times Newspaper, October 2, 1969 / Volume II No. 38, pages 4...
Untitled 2001 Poster advertising the draft programme of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. Poster is arranged in horizontal bands of color starting with black at top with yellow text, red with silhouettes...	Avenge the Murder of the CWP 5! 1979 Poster on newsprint titled "Avenge the Murder of the CWP 5!" with information about marches. Image in top half has a man in overall using a rifle butt to bash a man with a hat that...
Industrial Workers of the World Charter Inkworks Press, printer Late 20th Early 21st Century Poster with a facsimile of an Industrial Workers of the World Charter. Poster is black and white with text at bottom with address for Labor Archives and Research Center at San Francisco State...	Emma Goldman Jeremy Sutton, designer 1990 Poster with a sketch in red of Emma Goldman at center on a taupe background. Below is a quote from Emma Goldman and text about commemorating Goldman 50 years after her death.
Emma Goldman Marla Giannopoulou, designer Late 20th Early 21st Century Poster with an image of Emma Goldman at center in yellow, behind bards. Background is a collage of her papers, which were published by the University of California Berkeley. Text in orange about...	Exams Late 20th Early 21st Century Poster has black ink printed on white paper. At the top is a stylized image of a figure with a tape recorder for a brain sitting in a chair next to a "memory" bag and speaking into a microphone....
untitled (poem and figure lying on grass) Late 20th Early 21st Century Poster has white unprinted edges enclosing a stylized background image of a black and white figure lying on a hill of black grass, looking up at the blue sky dotted with white stars and a yellow...	Vote Socialist Workers 1970 Poster has a painted background that transitions from red at the top to yellow at the bottom. At the top is a purple female gender symbol with a fist in the opening at the top. At the bottom of...