Propaganda!

Some time back, in Berlin, me and some friends stopped by a small shop selling clothing and props from the Soviet Union era. My friends bought some stuff with red stars, decorated with hammer and sickle and other symbols. My friend from Lithuania, a former Soviet republic, didn't buy anything (me neither). He told me later that many Lithuanians still would feel offended by people wearing such symbols. Many Lithuanians still remember Soviet suppression. He asked if I would wear clothes with swastika or other Nazi symbols. I answered "Of course not!", but I was surprised by the question. I also told him that I had not thought of it this way before....

I later visited Cuba, a state which still hang on to communism and still hail the socialist revolution back in 1959. Fidel Castro was the main leader of the Cuban guerrilla back then and he is still alive. The power is now given to his younger brother Raul since 2008. According to the leaders on Cuba, the revolution still lives. Murals, signs, posters and billboards on buildings and along the roads try to make sure that Cubans don't forget that.

Fidel Castro (right) and his less charismatic brother Raul Castro (left) says: "Go Ahead!"

The propaganda machine on Cuba have been persistent, and have made Fidel Castro’s friend and war commandant Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, or Che Guevara as we call him, into an internationally famous and iconic figure. His portrait is all over Cuba, in schools, public buildings and his main monument is at the plaza de la revolucion in Santa Clara.

An enormous Che Guevara statue at the "plaza de la revolucion" in Santa Clara, Cuba

Che Guevara on the wall of the ministry of communication in Havana

Che Guevara (the Argentinean) left Cuba in 1965. His mission was to spread the revolution all over South America, and he died as a guerrilla soldier in Bolivia in 1967.

Che Guevara in Cienfuego "Your example lives, your ideas stays" (something like that)

 

There is a connection between street art and ideological propaganda. When the french stencil and street artist Blek Le Rat was a child, he travelled to Italy with his parents where he saw wall stencils which depicted Mussolini. This experience became a part of his inspiration to begin with stencil making in the streets. However, with a quite different attitude and ideological basis. Blek Le Rat first stencils where his black rats. The street artist Shepard Fairey (obeygiant) use the strategies of propaganda (easy recognizable pictures, often two or three colors, with short slogans) as part of his artistic project and participation in social movement campaigns. The advantage of stencils lies in its symbolic character, often black and white, and is easy to distribute and repeat with limited resources. The Che Guevara stencil is iconic, known all over the world and lives its own life, transcending any real historic and original ideological meaning of his ideas and life (except maybe on Cuba).

Fidel Castro Says: "Fatherland or death"

Propaganda often presents facts selectively and uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response. Propaganda can be used as a form of ideological or commercial warfare. On Cuba, propaganda is still an agent trying to influence peoples attitudes and values, but the power of the propaganda is vanishing day by day for most people. It's important to see that propaganda strategies is not just means of dictators or ideological systems. In the "free world" we often use the word "campaign".

Street sign outside Cienfuego with clear reference to the U.S. supported invasion failure at the bay of pigs in 1961

One day signs like these, depicted above, probably will be replaced by commercials for beer, burgers or perfume etc. In Germany, the old nazi symbols are still prohibited by law for good reasons and all over the world these symbols are loathed by the large majority. So why haven't the same happened with communist and socialist propaganda and symbols?

I don't have the answer to that, but parts of it may have something to do with the historical roots of many revolutions and parts about how the socialist systems fell. The raise against the social and economical brutality of the Batista regime had sympathy in Europe. After the horrors of world war II, fascist, military, racist and ultraconservative regimes were regarded worse than socialist regimes (which after all, at least on paper, had an ideology of making things better for all). In addition, U.S. and European democracies weren't perfect either. When the Berlin wall fell in 1989, people where just happy to gain freedom and the old system that had failed in so many ways was replaced without a massive war to break it down. The notion of the socialistic society was over, and communism had failed. All that was left was the cultural artifacts and the symbols. There were no "propaganda power" left in them for most people, both inside and outside of the wall. Just an aesthetic value from a political system that actually died from within.

The London Police: Street art Icons

The London Police (TLP) is a London based duo which paint their LADS with smiley faces all over the world. They started in 1998 and TLP is essentially built on friendship. The friendship between Bob and Chas and their mission to travel the world and make boring places into more colourful, enjoying and friendly spaces. TLP make clean, graphical and bold street art. I found and photographed this piece (above) in Berlin and it's made on a big wall facing a playground for kids. Imagine the place without that mural. I think it makes a big difference.

In 2011, TLP and other artists were in Oslo to raise awareness and funds for Human Rights Watch. TLP claimed that Street Art fans are typically more in touch with the needs of communities and are fierce advocates of the rights of all people. The photos below, I took an early morning in Oslo. In general the street art culture have always been concerned with social awareness, societal values and political issues. E.g. the Occupy movement was massively supported by street artists who helped the activists to spread their message to the world. "We are the 99%". When Banksy presented a street art piece to the Occupy Movement in London it was news headlines all over the world. Shepard Fairey did the same for the movement in US (occupy wall street). The same happened when street artists began to paint on the Israeli wall on the West Bank drawing attention toward the situation for palestinians.

TLP in Oslo

TLP closeup

I don't know if street art can change the world, but street art isa very and social attention to a number of issues. Street Art have an impact becausethe work is public and for all, and that's hard to ignore. In addition to the public availability in the urban space. Today, if a new street art piece comes up in London, Berlin or Vardø, it burns through internet almost before it's finnished and is made available for people all over the world. You may not know where Vardø is, well check it out here. Well, I think that TLP makes a difference and you may visit their web site here for news. Together with this post I choose "All along the Watchtower" with Jimi Hendrix. This song by Dylan is so so cool! (Click on the link or the "play" button in the box below to listen).

Mij. K. Do: Freedom in Berlin

In 2011 it was 50 years since the building of the Berlin Wall when the communist East closed its border, dividing the city for 28 years. Soldiers from the East began construction on the morning of 13 August 1961 and the wall fell 9th. of November 1989. During the 28 years of the Berlin wall more than 5000 people tried to escape over to the West, and the number of people who died trying to cross the Wall is disputed. At least 136 are known to have been killed but victims' groups say the true number is more than 700.

Today about 1,3 km of the wall is kept and goes under the name East Side Gallery. East Side Gallery is a memorial of freedom and preserves murals painted by 118 international artists since 1990. It's the largest open air gallery in the world. And, again, in 2011 Street Artists from different parts of the world were invited to paint concrete sections from the Berlin wall. The Berlin based artist Mij.K.Do was one of them. 

I photographed this piece above by Mij K Do on a warm august afternoon in 2012. This was my first visit to Berlin as an adult and I loved the city, the atmosphere, the street art culture and the art works of Mij. K. Do. I do not know much about the artist and there are almost no information on the web, just some pictures of works. The german president said in a speech about the wall that:"In the end, freedom is unconquerable. No wall can survive the will for freedom in the long term. The violence of just a few has no hold over the drive for freedom of many." I think that the idea of freedom belongs to works of Mij K Do.

Wall murals of Mij K Do placed at Check Point Charlie. Where does your heaven start?

Together with this work I choose Redemption Song by Bob Marley (Click on the link or the "play" button in the box below to listen).  

 

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

This is the famous quote from George orwell's book Animal Farm (1945). The quote is comrade Napoleons re-formulation of the 7. commandment "all animals are equal" in the ideology of animalism when he take absolute power of the farm and transform it into a totalitarian society.


In history this quote have been used heavily by reactionaries and conservatives to criticise the Marxist and communist ideology and society. And yes, Orwell's fairy tale describes the process and developments of totalitarianism and elitism in ideology and politics, but does his tale apply to us?

 In US, Western Europe and Norway we tend to like that democracy is different, more open and more egalitarian than comrade Napoleons farm. However we tend to forget the part where Orwell describes the the dynamics of power and elitists thinking which may as well apply to our society. Often hidden, but may reveal it self in critical situations. It's difficult for our society to deal with the forces where the main duty is to secure the power base. The agents of these forces are not the main "actors" on the public arena like e.g. Napoleon in Animal Farm or the main politicians and political actors in our society. We may call the forces to secure power base "the shadow" of an open society. These forces rules by comrade Napoleons dictate: "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others".