Propaganda

 

'I Take My Desires for Reality, Because I Believe in the Reality of My Desires.'

-graffiti, Paris 1968

 

For upcoming events, leaflets telling people what is going on, when and where in a concise and preferable entertaining way are fairly essential. However, people get pissed when you continuously shove leaflets in their face. Other good ways to spread your message through propaganda include the use of stickers, posters, banners and other more permanent tools. You can even use yourself as a medium for communicating your message, simply by printing up and wearing your message on a T-shirt. A less expensive alternative is getting your gear off and painting your message directly onto a given body part, as demonstrated recently by the clearfelling message communicated so eloquently to John Howard. With some creativity, the possibilities are endless. And remember “all art is propaganda . . on the other hand, not all propaganda is art.”

The following aims to provide info on ways to get your message out there.

Photocopying
Places to access cheap photocopying include

Student Unions - the environment officers at student union will usually do free photocopying for anyone who contacts them.

Centrelink has free photocopying available for dole related activities (in theory).

Commercial Copy Centres - there are a few commercial centres open 24 hour, which can be useful if stuff needs to get done on short notice, but cost $$.

Dinkums - 460 Swanston St Carlton, 24 hours, 10 cents an A4

 

Stickers
Stickers are cheap and easy to make in large numbers. Simply get sticker paper cut to A4 size and feed it through a photocopier. Try -

Watts Paper & Packaging
555 Victoria St.
Abbotsford 3067
ph. 9421 2000, fax. 9421 2200
There are loads of different options, including fluorescent stuff etc

 

Postering
What to take - sticky tape, glue and some friends

Glue recipe - fill a large pot with water and begin heating. In a separate bowl mix plain flour and water together slowly. (the most affective way is to make a crater in the flour and slow add water to it as you mix) It is important to thoroughly mix it bit by bit until a smooth paste is formed.
Next, slowly stir the paste in to the heating water ( you need to add quite a bit ) Continue stirring, and heating, until the appearance of the mixture becomes translucent, which may take 10 or so minutes - then its ready.

Where - well where ever. It's worth remembering that in the inner city posters don't stay up long. If you put them on poles the council will pull them down. If however you put them on the walls between shops or on the side of shops they are likely to stay for longer. It can be really affective to do outer suburbs, as posters often get more attention because they're not put up as often. They often stay up a lot longer too.

 

Banners
Banners are useful way of getting messages out. Calico is a pretty cheap, though lightweight material for doing stuff on (approx $5/metre for 1.8m wide). Try any Spotlight store.

Banner Drops

Banner drops can be spectacular if the banner is really huge and hung in a conspicuous place (ie think of the now famousWTO/Democracy banner in Seattle). Good places are often high and may require climbing equipment (and experience in using climbing equipment unless you want to die. The Ruckus Society provides a complete ‘how to’ guide on climbing on their web page www.ruckus.org but they also note “a good activist is a living activist” and stress the need for hands on learning. Indoor climbing centres can teach you how to climb in one or two days. Once you know how to climb, all you need is equipment. This is expensive, however, forest action groups often have climbing equipment that you can borrow, or know where to get it. Otherwise, look for alternative methods like ascending the wall front from the inside. Look for stairwells with windows, roof top access, or make friends with people in apartments or high office so you can simply drop the banner out the window and tie it on. Remember that you may be trespassing.

Freeway Drops

Freeways are a useful place to get the messages out to thousands of people in a very short time. The best place is pedestrian bridges, as they are safer and are more inconvenient for the cops to get to. The legal side of this is a bit blurry, which is useful. Generally though it seems that if you hold the banner it is not illegal, if you tie the banner to a bridge etc it is theoretically affixing a sign which is a fineable offense. Hot tip: if you get as many toots as you do fingers then your campaign is doing pretty damn well.

 

Screen Printing and Badges

Screen printing can be used for printing posters, patches and T-shirts. Soon (hopefully) there will be screen printing equipment available for use at Barricade Books. If you are planning on doing lots of printing over the years, why not start a screen printing co-op with some friends. You can cover the costs of buying the equipment by taking orders for other people and selling some of your own designs. Otherwise, there is screen printing available at universities, which is still a bit pricey. Many student unions have badge makers just sitting around waiting for you to use them (although you will need to get your own badge bits). Many printing places also make badges for around $50 for a bag of one hundred small badges, although this is a pain in the ass because all the badges have to be the same design. Alternatively, you can hire a badge maker for a day, buy a few bags of badge bits for $33 for a bag of one hundred, and get your friends to help you make thousands of different badges.

 

Other Methods

Don’t forget simplicity. A can of spray paint costs five dollars. A chunky black texta costs two.

 

S11 tag