Please join Design Action at "Communication for Liberation: Visual Communications in the Social Justice Movement"on Thursday, June 24, from 10 AM-noon, Cobo Hall: W1-53.

We will be joined by a panel of experts presenting case studies on successful collaborations between communications workers and on-the-ground organizers, followed by a lively roundtable  discussion. This panel and discussion will focus on the role of communications workers (strategists, organizers, graphic designers, print makers, web developers, etc…) in social justice movements. The panel will feature presentations by successful progressive communications workers who will share case studies of how strategic communications work can support organizing campaigns. We will discuss the responsibilities and challenges of communications workers in supporting grassroots social movements.

Sabiha Basrai, Design Action Collective
Melanie Cervantes, Dignidade Rebelde
Joseph Phelan, Miami Workers Center
Steven Renderos, Mainstreet Project and MAG-Net
Jen Soriano, Grassroots Global Justice

http://organize.ussf2010.org/ws/communication-liberation-visual-communications-social-justice-movement

Design Action will also be participating in the workshop: "Economic Allies - how economic alternatives can support the struggle" sponsored by our allies Liberation Ink and JASecon, on Weds June 23, 1-3 pm.  We will be discussing the intersection of alternative economic models (in our case, worker-owned cooperatives) and social justice issues. For more details, please go here: http://organize.ussf2010.org/ws/economic-allies-how-economic-alternatives-can-support-struggle

We are proud to announce that Design Action Collective’s poster, “Unity is Power”, was recently selected by a panel of judges as the Akonadi Foundation 2010 Racial Justice Poster.

“Unity is Power” was the product of a successful and dynamic collaboration between Design Action, Causa Justa / Justa Cause, and Inkworks Press. Earlier in the year, Design Action and Inkworks Press chose the Bay Area housing and immigrant rights organization, Causa Justa / Just Cause, to be the recipient of the inaugural People’s Poster Project, in which Design Action would work with a grassroots social justice organization to design a poster to serve as an aid in their campaign work, and Inkworks Press would donate the printing. Design Action and Causa Justa / Just Cause, a dynamic, multiracial, working class membership organization which now spans Oakland and San Francisco, collaborated on messaging and then went through a number of rounds of design. The outcome was the “Unity is Power” poster, which speaks to Causa Justa / Just Cause’s work of defending working class people’s access to housing as a fundamental human right.

Initially Inkworks Press donated 1000 copies of the poster to Causa Justa / Just Cause for use in their campaign work, and now The Akonadi Foundation will  print the poster and distribute it to racial justice organizations across the country, as well as to foundations and other allies, as well as contributing prize money to both Design Action Collective and Causa Justa / Just Cause.

Design Action is excited to announce that La Guerra No , by John Santos and the Coro Folklórico Kindembo, is currently nominated for a GRAMMY in the field of Traditional World Music (John’s fifth nomination and Kindembo’s second). Design Action is honored to have been part of this project by designing the CD packaging. The winners will be revealed at the big ceremony in Los Angeles on January 31st.

From the liner notes: "…It is with great love of family, friendship, and cultural exchange, and the intention of evolving on the spiritual, human, and intellectual levels that fuel our deep desire to eliminate the outdated, useless concept  of war. To that end we offer La Guerra No , our third full-length CD with the Coro Folklórico Kindembo. We hope that in addition to uplifting your spirit and bringing you joy, the music will provide some degree of inspiration and strength in your path towards awareness and spiritual growth, as it does on a daily basis for us. Peace —js"

Global Exchange, 2017 Mission Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94110

July 20th

7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Join us for a look at the role of political posters and political graphics as a mass communication tool for social justice movements. Featuring slide shows, poster exhibit, and presentations from author and archivist Lincoln Cushing, artist and co-founder of Tumis Favianna Rodriguez, and Design Action Collective members Nadia Khastagir and Sabiha Basrai. Question and answer session will follow.

This event is free, and everyone is welcome.

Books will be on sale:

Visions of Peace & Justice: Thirty years of political posters from the archives of Inkworks Press , published by Inkworks Press
Agitate! Educate! Organize! , by Lincoln Cushing, Timothy W. Drescher
Reproduce & Revolt/Reproduce Y Rebélate , edited by Josh MacPhee & Favianna Rodriguez

The West County Indicators Project, led by Pacific Institute, released its report on June 15, "Measuring What Matters, Neighborhood Research for Economic and Environmental Health and Justice in Richmond, North Richmond, and San Pablo." The full-color bilingual 108 page report has a wealth of neighborhood-level data, including community testimonies, photos, maps, solutions that can work, and resources for making these solutions a reality. This report, a three-year undertaking, is one of the first neighborhood-level health projects of this size with research work and community support from seven local organizations.

This report will help community groups and local government to lobby for solutions and changes that are outlined inside. To download the report, please go here: http://www.pacinst.org/reports/measuring_what_matters/

Design Action collaborated with Pacific Institute on the design and production of this report to present the information in a useful and user-friendly way. We are honored to have been part of such a successful and important project.

Check out the news coverage of the release of the "Measuring What Matters:"

Report Shows Environmental and Economic Issues Impacting East Bay Neighborhoods
KTVU News Story – almost 3 minutes long, 6/15/09

Report Flags Environmental, Economic Concerns for West Contra Costa County Community
Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune, 6/16/09

New Report Outlines Problems Facing West Contra Costa County
East Bay Express – 6/15/09

Pacific Institute’s new report details the economic and environmental challenges in West Contra Costa County
Aquafornia, 6/15/09

In a landmark victory for corporate accountability, human rights and environmental justice, Shell Oil agreed to pay out $15.5 million in a settlement to avoid an upcoming trial which "was expected to reveal extensive details of Shell’s activities in the Niger Delta." (as reported by the New York Times ).  The case was brought on behalf of ten plaintiffs who accused Shell of complicity in the 1995 executions of Nigerian writer and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others.

Like many activists of the time, we were sickened by the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995. Innosanto Nagara created this image in reaction to Saro-Wiwa’s death. In fact this image is the origins of what is now Design Action. Inno knew that designing on his own as an independent graphic artist would just be designing in a vacuum, so he sought out organizations which were working on the issues. Inno teamed up with Project Underground and other organizations which were organizing with communities worldwide against oil, coal and other devastating industries.

Inno has recently been updating the poster for additional organizing efforts around the Shell trial. For more information about Shell Oil’s abuses in Nigeria and about the settlement, read here: http://www.shellguilty.com/

After receiving an unprecedented number of proposals (almost 100!), we were faced with a very challenging decision: choosing from some of the most powerful and exciting social change organizations in the US (plus a couple from Cuba and Canada!). The decision was excruciating, and most of you were deserving. But we had to pick one, and after much deliberation we decided to donate the poster to a joint campaign of two Bay Area grassroots organizations building the collective power of working class communities of color: St Peters Housing Committee and Just Cause Oakland.

Design Action Collective and Inkworks Press are thrilled to be supporting the work of these two vibrant and powerful organizations fighting for social, economic and racial justice. An announcement will be forthcoming upon the release of the poster.

About the St Peters Housing Committee and Just Cause Oakland joint project:
St Peters Housing Committee and Just Cause Oakland are joining forces to launch a Bay Area-wide campaign in working class African-American and Latino communities responding to the economic crisis through a grassroots response. The current crisis is hitting working class communities of color the hardest. As the new landlords, banks are not being held to the proper legal standards. People are being kicked out of their homes by the thousands even after the banks have grabbed their federal bailout money. Tenants are having their water and electricity shut off and are being forced to live in outrageous conditions. The same people who have been forced to bail out the banks as tax payers, are now being evicted by those very banks that have become their landlords.

As grassroots organizations with long histories of economic and racial justice organizing in San Francisco and Oakland, Just Cause Oakland and St Peters Housing Committee will be working with Design Action Collective and Inkworks Press to produce a bilingual English/Spanish poster responding to the economic crisis with an anti-displacement framework, targeting the banks, celebrating working class resistance and the historic unity of Black and Latino communities. The poster will be used in service of their community resistance campaign and distributed through their organizing work of door to door outreach, and at neighborhood, tenant, and membership meetings in the hardest hit communities.

Update:

Thank you all for your applications. We’re extremely excited that so many great organizations doing such great work have applied. But we’re also overwhelmed with this excruciating decision, as so many of you are so deserving and would be an honor to work with.

Due to this unexpected volume of applicants, our reviewers are going to need a couple more days to go through the applications. We will contact you with the results (and post them to our website) on Friday, May 8.

Thanks for your patience!
(more…)